The Fifth Note of SkinnerBX
by SapphireShelle91
Summary: The Fifth Note of SkinnerBx, part five in my CracKing series.Be inside Michael's head & discover what he is thinking during the disaster of Mia's birthday dinner, at her birthday party, during his sister crusade against Les Hautes Manger & his graduation
1. Prologue

**Author's Note:** Hey Everyone. Look who's BACK!  
>Yeah, I know that most of you have read already read the Prologue of TFNOS, but bear with me. The first chapter will be up shortly. Yes, I am out of my writer block. YES! All I had to do was do a complete re-write of this fic, lol, not a hard thing to do at all 'rolls eyes'. I guess, in a round about way, by having no internet and my Dad (who's house I'm currently staying at, at the moment) has been sick, has been a good thing. It's meant I've had to actually write and even though, it was hard re-writing the whole first part of this fic, moving stuff that were originally in chapter one into say chapter four and then reverse, move stuff that was in say three into chapter two. So yeah, these past two days have been spent being devoted to getting this fic back under control. I haven't finished it yet, I'm currently writing Mia's party, but I feel pretty good about getting the whole thing done and posting all the chapters up here in a very short time period, so yes, no more waiting and wondering if I'm ever going to finish writing the series, because I will. I am determined to do it, my ultimate goal in all this is to write book ten, the whole reason I started writing these fic, so yeah, I will be writing book 6, 7, 8 and 9 and of course 10, so I'll be here for awhile.<p>

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><p><strong>The Fifth Note of SkinnerBx<strong>

**Prologue**

"Told you so." I grinned as I shut down the computer and pulled out the thumb drive that held the program that had just won me special honours at the school's Science Fair.

"Yes, yes, you're very smart. Shut up." I told her, feeling both pleased and embarrassed.

Mia just kept grinning at me.

"You still think there could have been more done to it, don't you?" she teased before rolling her eyes at me.

I swatted her forehead with Science Fair brochure.

"Maybe. But I don't know what."

"Well, I think it was pretty perfect. I think I learn more from watching that than I did from when we were learning about dwarf stars in seventh grade. Plus it was way more interesting." I grinned at her.

"Thanks. Want to go get a Pie?"

"Shouldn't we wait for Lilly?" Mia asked looking around the gym for my sister and her best friend.

"Nope. This is the perfect time to sneak out." I said as I tucked my thumb drive into my back pack and swung it on to my back.

"She's going to kill us." Mia replied as we (plus Lars, who for once wasn't bored stiff at one of these school events) headed out of the gym into the AEHS corridor outside.

"And that's new how?" I asked as we made our way out of school and in the direction of Ray's Pizza. Mia thought for a moment before nodding. Once we were out of sight of school, I took hold of her hand, our fingers lacing together.

"Birthday is in a week and a bit. What horrors has your Grandmother got in store for you?" I asked and she immediately groaned.

"She wants to throw this huge party for me, like the one she wanted to throw for Mom's and Mr G's wedding, and invite all these famous people and so on." She shuddered. "Dad and I are trying to talk her out of it though."

"How's that going?" I asked, laughing.

"I've threatened that if she throws this party for me; I'll just lock myself in the bathroom all night long and make her look like an idiot."

"Such a sweet, considerate granddaughter you are." I laughed and she grinned.

"And what an evil, manipulative grandmother she is. You know what she's like. Anything to get herself into the spotlight."

"And dragging you along into it too?"

"I should try and convince her that by being in the spotlight, gives me hives, then maybe she'll stop trying to pull me into it all the time."

"That might work. Though you might need to prove it to her."

Mia pulled a face before turning around to Lars who was walking a few feet behind us.

"How much do you think Paolo would charge to give me the appearance of having a really bad case of hives?"

"I'm afraid a lot. And you would have to find a way to convince him to do it for you first, Princess."

"Money isn't convincing enough?"

"Not with him. He's love for a perfect face does actually outweigh his love of money."

"Crap." Mia grumbled and I laughed.

"So is the party thing actually going to happen?" I asked as I held open the door of Ray's Pizza open for both her and Lars.

"No, I very much doubt it, both Dad and Mom put their foot down on the whole idea. For once, they're united on the same front." Mia said sounding mildly impressed with her parents.

"So what are you going to do instead?" I asked as we joined the line in front of the counter to order. Even though it was a school day, it was still early-ish in the afternoon, so that there weren't many people or school kids filling up the booths.

"Family dinner." And her face turned a little green.

"It might not be that bad." I replied and she shot me a highly doubtful look. Even Lars had to hide the fact that he was laughing at that.

"My Dad, my Mom, Grandmere and Mr G, all in the same restaurant, at the same table! It's going to be a disaster zone. Dad is scared of Grandmere, Grandmere scared of no one, Mom likes to annoy both Dad and Grandmere, Dad accidently pisses Mom off on a frequent bases and Grandmere does it deliberately."

"What about Mr G."

"Probably will just sit back and watch the show, wondering how the heck he got himself into this situation." Mia finished with a sigh.

I laughed again before ordering up a pie and three cokes.

"Wanna find a booth?" she nodded and we headed in the direction of a booth that was empty while Lars sat himself down at a table on the other side of the restaurant. Far enough away so that it didn't feel like he was breathing down our necks but still close enough in case anything should happen that could be a danger to Mia's person.

"So what are you going to do?"

"Probably see if I can sneak a book into the restaurant. I'm going to take my journal with me no matter what."

"Sounds like you're going to have a fantastic evening." I teased and she kicked me under the table. Not hard, like one of Lil's kicks would have been, but enough to know she was slightly peeved at me.

"Hey, if I could come and make you evening more interesting, I would. But…"

"Do you want to?" Mia asked looking a little sceptical but also a little hopeful too. "Come that is."

"Am I allowed?" I asked, feeling a little doubtful.

I have only met Mia's grandmother a handful of times but in those handful of times, as short as they were, she made it pretty clear what she thought of me. And it wasn't exactly very highly.

"Mom and Dad don't mind, actually it was their idea. Mr G would probably be relieved to have someone else sane at the table and Grandmere will be too busy complaining about everything else to notice."

"Wow, the feeling of welcomeness is overwhelming."

"You don't have to if you don't want to. It's going to be boring as anything. That is, if Mom and Dad keep their promises about behaving themselves. If they don't, well… it's a free dinner show."

I couldn't help but laugh.

"I never thought they were that bad. They honestly don't get along with each other?" because in truth, the few times I've actually seen Mia's parents together in the same room, they've been too worried about whatever Mia was doing to pay much attention to each other.

"They don't fight, as such. They just… as I said before, Mom likes to wind up Dad and Dad will accidently piss Mom off because of something or other he's said."

"And I thought my parents were complicated. And Mr G?"

"He finds them hilarious. I guess because the chances of Mom and Dad actually getting back together are below sub-zero."

"Pie's up!" The guy at the counter yelled, waving his arm at us.

I got up and grabbed our pie along with our three sodas and took it back to our booth where Mia then grabbed two large slices of pizza, placed them on to a paper plate, as well as a soda and took them over to Lars, who gave her a grateful grin and a ruffle of her hair. I think Lars and I are the only people who can actually get away with ruffling Mia's hair without receiving her version of a death glare.

When she came back to our booth and had gotten herself a slice, I got myself one, folded it in half and took a bite while Mia cringed.

"I don't know how you do that without burning your tongue!"

"I have pretty sturdy taste buds." I explained and she rolled her eyes back at me.

"Clearly." She said as she carefully sprinkled hot-pepper flakes all over her slice.

"Like you're one to talk. As if that is so much better." I said nodding to the hot-pepper flakes.

"At least I wait for the slice to cool down, not simply bite into it the first moment I got."

"But it tastes way better this way." I chuckled and took another bite of the hot slice to demonstrate while she continued to cringe.

"No, I think I like it my way better." She said as she took a tiny bite of pizza.

"Suit yourself." I said with another grin.

"So have you thought about what you're going to do for your birthday party?" I asked once I had finished my slice of pie.

"Hmm, not really." She shook her head.

"You're enthusiasm is overwhelming." I teased and she grinned a little sheepishly.

"I know, Mom's been telling me the same thing. I guess, what with the whole drama with Grandmere wanting to throw me that huge party, I'm sort of all partied out. I just want to have fun and that's just about it."

"Sounds reasonable. Though you're starting to sound like me, which is scary me some." I teased and she giggled.

"Yeah, Lilly's been saying that you've been a bad influence on me."

"Haven't been as eager with her whole world domination plans, huh?" she shook her head.

"Been too busy with Princess lessons and school and being with you," she smiled at me and I smiled back, "to try and put all the effort that she wants to go into her latest schemes. Plus her latest schemes only last like three weeks. If it doesn't look like it's working, she gives up on it. Maybe if she had a long term scheme, like she has with _Lilly Tells It Like It Is_, I might put a bit more effort in, but at the moment…" she shrugged.

"Can't be bothered?"

"Pretty much. And she's been so cranky about _Lilly Tells It Like It Is_ not being picked up, that it's hard even working on that with her."

"She'll find something to distract herself with… eventually"

"Can it not be pissing off my grandmother?" Mia asked and I laughed.

Lilly, like me, has so far only met Clarisse a handful of times, but each of those times, Lil has managed to piss the Dowager Princess off so much, that the two of them actually get into yelling matches, ending with security threatening to throw us (Lil and me) out of the Plaza. Only reason they haven't so far is because Mia and Lars have always managed to stop them.

"I'll try and divert her attention away from that thought." I promised and Mia looked relieved.

We finished our pie and cokes and left Ray's Pizza, deciding to take the long way to the Plaza, where Mia had a Princess Lesson with her grandmother in half an hour.

"Are you sure that you really want to come to my birthday dinner?" as we started walking through Central Park.

"If you want me there, I'll be there." I replied as I pulled off my school jacket and tied it around my waist. Even though it's still only spring, there were days, like today, that were quite warm.

I watch Mia do the same thing with her jacket, even though we both knew she was going to have to put it back on when we reached the Plaza or her grandmother would have a fit.

"You're either really brave or somewhat suicidal to agree to come to this dinner." Mia mused and I laughed.

"How bout we just go with brave. And hey, you did ask me." I teased and she pouted.

"I know. I guess I just want someone around to suffer along with me." We heard a loud, annoyed cough from behind us (aka Lars) at that comment.

"Ok, beside Lars."

"I feel the love." I chuckled, "and I feel even more welcome now." She poked me in the ribs.

"You know what I mean. At least you might get some free entertainment out of this."

"How bout we try and think of the positives sides of this birthday dinner." She looked at me with a dry expression.

"There's a positive side to my parents and grandmother all being in the same room together besides the fact that they'll provide free entertainment for everyone in the restaurant while I'll be embarrassed out of my mind by them."

"Presents?"

"Oh yeah, there is that, I suppose."

"And there'll be a good meal you can count on to distract you from your parents and grandmother. And I'll be there." She smiled at that before sighing as the Plaza came into view.

"So what wonderful, exciting, educational thing will you be learning today?" I asked as we neared the Plaza's front doors.

"Oh probably the wonderfully exciting, educational art of how to wave a fan in the correct fashion."

"Sounds riveting."

"Just shoot me already." She groaned.

"Nope, I love you too much to do that. Go on, before you're late and your grandmother comes out to hacks both our heads off."

"Fine." She grumbled and moved towards the stairs that led up to the Plaza's extravagant front doors. Just as she got to them, she turned around to face me and did this very neat, very pretty curtsy before rolling her eyes at me in disgust at her now being able to do it (though apparently the one she had just performed was one of the simplest curtsy to learn, even though it had taken her weeks to do it properly.) and stalked up the Plaza steps while I laughed after her.

I stood there until she was right inside the Plaza's foyer before leaving to head home… oh wait, I had band practise in about twenty minutes, which meant heading all the way back to school because it was the only space larger enough and far enough away from other people that we could practise in peace.

"Where did you disappear off to?" Paul asked as I walked into one of the school's music rooms.

"Took Mia out for Pie." I replied with a shrug and Paul nodded, a slight grin on his face, even though he looked a tad depressed. As did Felix from where he was standing on the other side of the room. I fought back a sigh.

These last couple weeks of term were going to be a delight. I could just tell.

I can I just graduate already, please?

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> As I've said many times before, I am so, so sorry for the wait. I know how annoying and frustrating it can be to wait for the next chapter or the next story in a series. Even when you do know that the author isn't doing it because they've simply lost interest in the story or have simply got writer's block, it can be frustrating. So I would just like to thank you all for your patience and support. I was having some very bad weeks, so you have no idea how much your support and kindness meant to me.  
>Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the Prologue of TFNOS, chapter one will be up soon, just have to proof-read it.<br>See you all soon.


	2. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** Hi there everyone. Here is chapter one. I admit, chapter one is something of a filler chapter, but I needed to write a filler chapter or this fic seriously wouldn't have got off the ground.  
>Still please, enjoy.<p>

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><p><strong>Chapter One<strong>

"Wow, you must really love her to get up that early in the morning to go all the way to Manhattan Muffin Company in Tribeca just so that you can get her a box of cinnamon mini-muffins." Lil teased as I staggered back into our apartment's kitchen on the first of May after doing just as she had said.

"It's her birthday and they're her favourite."I grumbled as I flopped into a chair at the kitchen table. Morning person, I am not.

I looked across the kitchen table at her and saw that she was trying (and failing) to wrap something in silver paper.

"What's that?"

"Mia's birthday present, duh."

"I gathered that much for myself, thanks. What is it?"

Instead of answering me, she simply showed me.

It was a pink cat collar (obviously, for Mia's infamously fat cat Fat Louie.) with the words _I Belong to Princess Mia_ on it that she had written in rhinestones.

"Hey, that's pretty cool." I told her with a grin.

Lil shrugged, but you could tell she was proud of herself.

"Thanks." She gave me hard, searching look. "You still haven't shown or told me what you got for her for her birthday."

I grinned a little more secretively.

"That's for me to know and you to… not."

"You didn't get her anything?"

"No, I have. I'm just not going to tell you what it is."

Lil scowled at me before sighing and went back to trying to wrap the cat collar.

"Why not just put it into a birthday bag or something?" I suggested and she gave another sigh and got up from the kitchen table to hunt down just that. She came back about five minuted before we expected Mia's Limo to arrive, holding up a birthday bag with balloons and fireworks covering it.

"You ready to go down?" I asked, jumping up from my chair the moment that she came back into the kitchen.

"Eager, aren't you?" Lil teased but pulled her school bag on anyway.

We headed down to the lobby, exiting the front doors just as Mia's limo arrived.

"Hi you tw-eek!"Mia started only to be tackled by Lil as soon as Lil entered the limo.

"Lil, you're killing her." I said, feeling both amused and jealous due to the fact that Lil got to give Mia a hug before I did.

Lil ignored me and Mia's sort of exasperated gasps for air and kept hugging her before releasing her quite suddenly.

"Happy Birthday." Lil said sounding quite bright and cheerful, for once. She handed Mia her birthday present with a smug grin before moving over so that I could get in.

"Hey."I said as I hopped into the limo, handing Mia the box of cinnamon mini-muffins, which caused her to beam in delight, before giving her our usual morning kiss. I would have liked it to have continued except that Lil was making small gagging noises after our usual morning kiss became somewhat longer than usual.

"Having a good birthday so far?" I asked as I sat down next her, since Lil had so kindly opted to sit beside Lars just for today.

Mia beamed up at me.

"Yup. It's been pretty good so far." She snuggled into my side and I kissed the side of her head, ignoring Lil's rolling eyes and Lars amused grin that he tried unsuccessfully to hide behind his morning coffee.

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><p>For most of the day, I found it hard to concentrate on school.<p>

I did try, but with graduation in just over a week, there seemed to be very little point especially when I was already in the University of my choice. Plus it's Mia's birthday! And a lot of things were hinged upon this fact.

"Look how jittery you are."Felix snorted during English, "you're almost as bad as you were when you mustering up the courage to show her that program of yours, remember?"

I pulled a face at him and tried to pay attention to whatever it was Mrs Weinstein had just said. Of course, that didn't work and I soon found myself panicky all over again.

"What are you freaking out about? Her not liking the song you wrote for her or about her birthday dinner tonight?" Felix asked becoming once more sick of my nervous, panicky attitude.

I gave him a look and he rolled his eyes.

"Look, it probably won't be so bad." He said and I raised my eyebrows at him and he seemed to concede that he might be wrong about that.

"Ok, maybe it will be, but at least you know that her Mom, her Dad and Mr G like you, so that should make the evening go by more easily."

"Ha!" I said without any humour. "You haven't met her grandmother. She makes no situation easy to be in. Plus," I added as I looked down at my hands, "she hates me."

"Who could possibly hate that face?" Felix said in a high-pitch teasing tone causing a number of heads turning back in our direction, confusion written all over them. One of those heads belonged to Judith. She looked less confused and more questioning as she looked back at us.

I simply rolled my eyes at her while Felix shot her a wide, comic smile and wiggled his fingers at her which caused her to twist, real fast, back around to the front of the room, clearly trying to hide her obvious amusement. She's been trying (and failing miserably) to not encourage this sort of behaviour with Felix. And as I said before, is failing miserably. She just can't help but crack a smile when she's around him. Which would be fine, because then we'd all be like 'see you like him! Go out already', except for the fact that she also can't help smile when she's around Paul as well, which just lands us all back in square one all over again. Trevor is suggesting that we just lock the three of them in a room together and whoever (Paul or Felix) comes out a live then he gets to date Jude. But for some reason, I can't find it within myself to agree to this plan, if only because Felix will win hands down if this thing ever came to a fist fight.

I rolled my eyes at him while he simply shot me back an innocent smile causing me to sigh.

"Look, even if her grandmother does hate you," I pulled a face but didn't say anything, "you still at least have her parents on your side, not to mention being friends with her bodyguard, whose probably been putting in a good word or two for you, along with the princess, to them. So really, tonight you have nothing to worry about, unless you try and grope her under…" I hit him over the head with my copy of _The __Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe_.

"Ow! I was just saying!"

"And you wonder why the parents of the girls you've dated haven't liked you." I grumbled while he simply rolled his eyes back at me.

"But seriously Mike, you have nothing to worry about."

I nodded and with a sigh, I settled back in my chair and in complete boredom, started to reread _The Pit and the Pendulum_, the original _Saw_.

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><p>"I would never have taken you for being a Poe fan." Judith said as the three of us headed in the direction of our next class.<p>

I raised an eyebrow at her.

"I've read the first five books of Harry Potter and seen the first two movies, but you wouldn't take me for a fan of it, would you?"

"No, but it doesn't surprise me to know that you have read and watch HP." Jude started while Felix muttered on my other side "Bad example" under his breath. "I mean, nearly everyone in the world has. But Edgar Poe…" she gave me a long look.

With a sigh, I showed her what I had been reading in English and she pulled a face.

"Of course, that makes perfect sense." She said as she rolled her eyes at me.

"And his mystery stories aren't too bad either."

"I think I would have preferred finding you reading one of them rather than _The Pit and the Pendulum_."

"What's wrong with it?" Felix asked.

Jude and I both shot him exasperated looks.

"Think of it as the original _Saw_." I said as Jude shuddered beside me.

Felix, of course, looked interested now.

"Really? Cool." I rolled my eyes at him, before giving a small groan as we came to our French classroom.

"Graduation can't come quickly enough." I said with a grumble as we walked into the room and headed for the back of the room, away from the excited babble emitted from a group of girls and Mademoiselle Klein as they poured over a magazine that held highly expensive dresses.

I simply shook my head and set about planning how I was going to sneak out of period four so that I could sneak off to Wu Liang Ye and get Mia the cold sesame noodles that she loves.

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><p>Doing just that, turned out to be surprisingly easy.<p>

Being a senior and also graduating in just over a weeks' time, does have it uses. One being that teachers who would normally march you to the principal's office the moment they saw you out of class without a hall pass, simply nodded at me and let me leave school grounds without hindrance.

And returning to school at the beginning of lunch, again no one gave me any trouble.

With a smirk, I caught up to Mia as she walked into the caff, sneaking up behind her, without any trouble from Lars who knew exactly what I was doing and simply grinned at me as I snagged her waist and pulled her gently to my side as I planted a subtle kiss to her hair.

There were too many people around for me to give her a proper kiss, but I knew the gesture was still appreciated, what with the way that she was smiling up at me.

I would have liked to have snuck her off to a private spot, preferably off school grounds but that would just end up getting us both into trouble, what with her being both a freshman and a Princess, though what could possibly happen to us, what with a heavily armed, over six-foot tall bodyguard following us around everywhere, I have no idea. So with some reluctance, I walked with Mia to her usual table.

"You're not going to seat with the computer club today?" Mia asked as she looked up at me in surprise as I sat down beside her. I gave her smile that were reserved special for her and shook my head.

"It's your birthday." I said simply and she blushed happily.

We ate lunch, Mia grinning widely when she saw what I had snuck into school for her.

"And you say you can't understand how I can eat fresh out of the oven pizza," I teased as I watched her dig into the cold sesame noddles, that are so spicy that you have to drink two cans of coke for your tongue to even begin feeling even remotely normal again, "when you love eating that stuff."

"There's a difference." She said as took a drink of coke to cool her burning tongue. "Pizza is physically hot, does more damage to the mouth. This is just…"

"Hot, even when it's cold." I said and she smiled back at me, which did funny things to my insides, giving them a sort of melting feeling.

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><p>I thought I would be more nervous performing in front of my G&amp;T class, but I actually found it to be quite fun, even though we, the whole band, received detention due to the fact we might just have had our amps up just a little too high, so that the whole school ended up hearing the song that I had written for Mia for her birthday. But at least Mrs Hills and all the other teachers in the Teacher's Lounge let us finish Mia's song before they informed us that we had detention this afternoon. Not that that is actually a bad thing, because our detention was issued to us more because of school protocol then because we had upset anyone, in fact we were informed by several teachers that we sounded quite impressive and to keep up the good work. That had made us feel pretty good about ourselves.<p>

But best of all was tackling hug I had received from Mia once everything had quieten down again, with the teachers all gone and everyone in G&T had return to their work.

She snuggled herself in close, burying her face into my neck.

"You liked it?" I asked, feeling hopeful that she had. The surprised, but delighted look that she had worn during the song had given me some confidence but I want her assurance that she liked it coming from her lips.

"I did, very much." She said as she kissed my cheek happily.

"Good, I'm glad."

I was just thinking of kissing her, to hell with everyone else in the room, when my lovely sister said loudly in our direction, "I thought I said that you weren't allowed to be sickening together."

"And since when do I listen to you?" I shot back at her, feeling the embarrassed blush of Mia's cheeks heating up the side of my neck.

"The least you could both do is get a room while you're being sickening so that the rest of us aren't scarred by it."

"No one said you had to look at us, Lil." I growled at her but with a sigh, I released Mia and steered her back to her chair, thinking that Mia and I seriously needed to find a private space where we could be together in peace, without the constant annoyance and interruption of sister's, parents, bodyguard (though at least Lars has the decency to look away while Mia and I make out and makes himself as scarce as he is able while still effectively performing his bodyguard duties), friends, teachers and so on.

The rest of the day past by smoothly, even detention, even though when we were finally allowed to leave I was starting to freak out due to how much time I had to get home, get ready and be at the restaurant in time.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> As I said before, very much just a filler chapter, next chapter will be Mia's Birthday Dinner, which will be, as you've all probably guess, a lot of fun.  
>Anyway, thanks for reading and you all know that reviews are much loved.<br>**Disclaimer:** Obviously I do not own the works of Mr Poe, or the Saw franchise (Thank gods 'shudders adn pulls face'.) nor do I own Harry Potter. And while I'm at I don't own PD or any of the characters, i'm just playing around with them and explore their possibilites.


	3. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: **So now the real fun begins! Mia's Birthday Dinner, not as fun as her actual birthday party (which was a lot of fun to write by the way. Heheheh, Poor Mike, he just can't win, but we'll get to that in a couple of chapters 'grins'), but still a lot of fun overall. Anyway, I'll just up and let you all ready and you can then, tell me what you think.

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><p><strong>Chapter Two<strong>

I wasn't. On time, that is, when I got to the restaurant.

No matter how fast I ran home, changed my clothes, got Mia's present before running from home to the restaurant where Mia's birthday dinner was being held, I was still late.

And almost the moment that I reached it, the moment that I arrived out front of Les Hautes Manger front doors I knew I wasn't going to fit in.

I was half tempted to turn and bolt; feeling panic and lack of self-worth start to overwhelm me as I looked into a restaurant fill with people dressed in expensive clothes and with huge check books.

It was a place I'd never fit into, a world where I did not belong, even if I tried. A world I didn't even really want to belong to, except…

Just when I started to give into the overwhelming desire to just head home, I saw her.

She was sitting at a table with her father, mother, grandmother and step-father, looking bored out of her mind, but there was also something else, she looked lonely, like she too, felt like she didn't belonged in there anymore than I did.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, braced myself and walked inside the restaurant. The looks I received as I entered did nothing to calm my nervousness, but I forced myself to ignore the looks, focusing mainly on trying to regain my breath from all the running I had done this afternoon.

It was Lars who saw me first, who stopped the head waiter guy from giving me a hard time by coming over to where I was hesitating, taking me firmly by the shoulder and basically dragged me over to where everyone else was sitting.

"You'll do fine." Lars muttered, before giving me a final push causing everyone at Mia's table to look around at me, which was just as nerve-racking as actually coming into the restaurant.

Though Mia's surprised, happy look that she gave me as I sat down beside her did help calm me down, my heart was still racing but I wasn't feeling like I was going to be sick from nerves anytime soon. Especially when everyone else at the table welcomed me warmly. Well, when I say everyone, Mia's grandmother excluded though she seemed to be holding her tongue, possibly for Mia's sake since it was her birthday after all.

I was grateful that almost immediately after I had sat down, it was decided that it was time to give Mia her birthday presents, taking away some of the awkwardness that I had been feeling for my late arrival.

So while Mia opened her gifts, I focus most of my energy on trying to get myself to relax in the company that I was currently in. I mean, it possibly wouldn't have been so bad if it had just been Mia, her Mom and Mr G because hey, I've known Helen since I was nine years old and we've always gotten on well. I've always thought she was cool for an adult and she, when she spoke to me, never treated me like a child. And Mr G, he's been one of my favourite teachers since I started at AEHS in year nine, so while, yeah it was weird to be having dinner with my year nine algebra teacher, it wasn't half as bad as having dinner with Mia's father and her grandmother. I mean, beside the well known fact that no father likes any guy who dates his daughter, there is also the extra bonus of him being a Crown Prince of a country (albeit a small one, but hey, it's still on the world map!), meaning if I do something wrong in his eyes, I could be knocked off by one of his bodyguard (maybe Lars), and no one would ever know where the hell my body ended up. And Mia's grandmother? Don't even get me started, but for the moment, she seems to be leaving me alone… for now.

I tuned back into what was going on around me once Helen and Mr G had finished setting the ground rules for Mia's new mobile phone, which she was insanely happy about, even with all the rules that go with her having it. In fact, the real reason behind her being given one by them is so that Helen can get in contact with Mia for when she goes in to labour because she wants Mia there for the birth of her new little brother or sister. Something, I know, for a fact that Mia is trying to wiggle her way out of. Not the having her new little brother or sister, just not being around when they're being born into the world.

Anyway, it was sort of amusing how everyone at the table sort of held their breath when Clarisse handed Mia her gift, though I couldn't see much danger in a large envelope. Actually the envelope contained something that was more surprising than dangerous, causing Mia's eyes to widen in disbelief as she read the letter that was inside the envelope before looking at her Grandmother, quite speechless.

It was even more amusing to see Clarisse looking uncomfortable for once, especially when she spends so much of her time making others uncomfortable.

She tried to cover her discomfort by sniffing and looking disinterested as she said, in her thick French accent, sounding bored and nonchalant, "I can't help you end world hunger, but I suppose I can help you send one little girl to bed every night with a good dinner."

Mia looked even more surprised that she started to blurt out something that sounded like, "But, Grandmere! You hate poor people!"

She said it so fast that only a couple at our table caught on to what she had said and had to make it look like we were coughing instead of laughing. Mr G winked at me and I felt myself becoming more comfortable.

With great glee, Mia showed me the letter that declared her the official sponsor of an African orphan girl by the name of Johanna. I smiled, as I knew just how much this meant to her.

Lil is always talking about changing the world and making a difference (which she probably will, from sheer will and brute force if nothing else), but it is Mia whose heart is really into this type of thing. Saving the Whales, Green Peace, helping starving orphan, these are all things Mia wants to do with all her heart.

She wants to make a difference and is actually taking the steps to make those differences, not simply talking about them and then getting bored. I'm not saying that Lil does this because in truth she doesn't care about the world. She does, very much and she wants to help change it for the better but she has a very much an 'Now' personality.

If she can't make a difference at this very moment, she moves on to something else, unlike Mia, who actually sticks by what she believes in, and is in it for the long haul.

I was a little surprise, but then not really, when Lars gave Mia a present next. You could see that Clarisse didn't approve but kept her mouth shut and Mia's father looked a little surprised but no one said anything as he gave to her his present or when she opened it.

"Here Princess," Lars said with a smile as he came forward from his wall, where he had been standing doing his bodyguard duty, "Happy Birthday."

He handed her an odd looking package and Mia smiled back at him, though there was a surprise look in her eyes as she unwrapped it.

It was a cap, but not just any cap. It was an authentic New York Police Department Bomb Squad baseball cap, from an actual NYPD bomb squad. It was given to Lars after he did a sweep of Clarisse's suite at the Plaza for any incendiary devices prior to a visit from the Pope. He was so proud to be given it by the bomb squad that I was a little startled that he would give it to Mia.

As was Mia, who looked from it to him, her facial expression confused. She knew how much Lars loved that cap just as well as I did. We had heard the story of how he got it often enough to know how much value he held it at.

But Lars seemed to be fairly sure on giving Mia the cap because he simply grinned at her and told her once more Happy Birthday.

I started to get nervous again then as I fumbled with a small, flat box that was sitting innocently in my jacket pocket. I couldn't think how to give it to her. I guess I should blame shyness, but in truth I simply didn't want to give it to her in front of her family. Stupid, right? But I just couldn't find the courage to simply hand it to her.

So it was something of a blessing when the adults started talking, a very neutral topic I might point out, and Mia stood up with her diary and her new purple pen (from her dad) with HRH Princess Amelia Renaldo engraved on it (you could just tell that Helen wanted to say something about the Renaldo but was holding her tongue) and headed for the restaurant's ladies room, so that she could write in her diary in peace.

I got up almost as soon as she had left the table and followed her, catching her just as she started down the stairs to the ladies room.

"Mia," I said as I caught her arm, stopping her from going down the stairs. She looked around at me in surprise, "this is for you. Happy Birthday." I said with a smile as I pulled out the flat box wrapped in gold foil from within my jacket pocket and handed it to her.

Her eyes widen in surprise as she took the box from me, carefully placing her diary and new pen down upon the stairs railing as she did so.

But she didn't open it; she just kept looking up at me in surprise.

"Michael," she protested slowly, staring up into my eyes, "but you already gave me a present! You wrote that song for me! You got detention for me!" I saw a hint of distress as she finished and I couldn't help but chuckle.

"Oh, that." I was a tiny bit embarrassed about that, the getting the detention part, that hadn't been a part of my plan. I could feel my ears turning red, but I kept going, "That wasn't your present. This is."

Still, she hesitated for a moment until I said, "Go on, open it." and smiling down at her fondly.

With a small sigh and a somewhat coy smile at me, she opened my present, gasping softly as she did so.

"From when we were at the Non-Denominational Winter Dance," I said quickly, worried that she might not have understood the meaning behind my unusual birthday present, "Remember the paper snowflakes hanging from the ceiling of the gym?" Because it was now that I was beginning to think how weird my choice of present for her was. A necklace with a tiny, silver snowflake? No one would understand what the pendant stood for. Which had kind of been the point behind my getting the snowflake necklace for her. That it would be something that was just between the two of us, that only we understood the meaning of the snowflake, but if she didn't get it…

But before I could worry too much about my odd present, her arms were suddenly wrapped around my neck, her mouth pressed against mine in a very welcoming, happy kiss.

"You like it?" I asked when we pulled apart for air.

Mia beamed widely up at me.

"I do, thank you so much." I just grinned back at her, kissing her again, even though I knew there were people around and probably looking straight at us, but at that moment I didn't care because I was happy. I was happy because she was happy.

When we finally pulled apart, she immediately started to try and put the necklace on, which, of course, made me even happier.

"Here." I said with a chuckle, taking the necklace from her, unclasping it and putting it around her neck, her turning her back to me so that I had an easier time re-clasping it for her, so that the snowflake now rested just below her collarbone.

"It's so pretty." Mia said smiling down at the snowflake.

"I'm glad that you like it."

"Of course."

I headed back to the table after that, to let Mia write in her diary in peace.

I sat back down in my seat and listened to the neutral talk of those around me. As I sat there listening, I could help but frown as I heard an unusual whimpering from underneath the table.

I leant a little down and looked under the table, feeling my mouth drop in disbelief at what I was seeing.

It was a dog, a tiny, balding one at that, sitting in a bag underneath the table by Clarisse's feet. So this was the infamous Rommel that Mia had told me about.

I looked up again and at the people around the table. I saw Mia's father looking at me and shaking his head, mouthing 'don't ask' before giving me an amused but self-suffering grin.

I grinned back at him, but that was when the ruckus started underneath the table.

I frowned again just as the bald, rat looking dog shot out from underneath our table.

"Um," I started but yelling around the restaurant drowned me out.

"Rommel!" Clarisse shrieked while the rest of us simply stared dumbstruck at the scene unfolding before us.

_Oh, this can only go well_, I thought as Mia's father, Lars, Mr G and I got up from our chairs, moving towards the rodent looking dog. And so it did, well, actually it got worse, as, of course, it would.

A busboy, who apparently hadn't notice the ruckus that was going on in the restaurant, was walking in our general direction carrying an enormous tray of half-empty soup bowls. We thought that we had Rommel cornered by the seafood bar, when the damn dog darted out and into the path of the busboy, tripping him up and the next thing everyone knew, there was lobster bisque flying everywhere.

Well, when I say everywhere, most of it landed on Mia's grandmother who gave this almighty shriek. It took a lot of effort not to crack up laughing at the scene in front of me, but somehow I managed to control myself by focusing my effort of grabbing the rodent or giant rat as the patrons of Les Hautes Manger were calling him.

He let out a pitiful yelp when I finally snagged him, his tiny legs still kicking out pathetically as I lifted him high off the restaurant floor. It took the combine effort of me, Lars and Mr.G to finally grab the stupid little dog, right before he could run out the revolving door and out into Fifth Avenue and becoming a rodent-dog pancake.

"Though why we don't just let that happen to the little…" Lars grumbled as he made sure that I had a firm hold on the stupid dog. Mr G chuckled while I grinned, before heading over to where Clarisse was being cleaned up by the overly apologetic Les Hautes staff members.

She glared at me as I came forward with her bloody dog, like this was all somehow my fault. I fought to control my face, to keep myself from glaring at her.

She took her stupid hairless dog from me without a word of thanks, clutching him to her chest, while the silly thing trembled in her arms as if he was mortally scarred by the damaged that _he_ had caused.

It was then that Mia came back from the ladies, her eyes wide with shock as she took in the scene in front of her.

"What happen?" she started as she came to stand by my side.

"Do you want the full story or the cliff-notes version?" I asked as I watched her look around at the mess that had been caused by her grandmother's dog.

"Your grandmother's dog…" I started only to be interrupted by the manager informing the busboy that he was fired. The boy, Jangbu was his name, looked like he was going to cry. He kept apologizing over and over again to Clarisse.

With all the apologizing that he was doing, there was a moment that it looked like his manager was going to take back his words of firing him, except that Jangbu's repeated apology fell upon deaf ears when it came to Clarisse. Note to self; never, ever piss this woman off!

Anyway, I gave Mia the cliff notes version of what had happened and she looked horrified before turning furious.

I leant back, alongside with Lars, against one of the restaurants walls, and watched as Mia defended Jangbu against his being fired because of something that was all her grandmother's dog's fault.

It was quite impressive and it was obvious that Mia had the attention of everyone in the restaurant; every single patron was listening to what she was saying. And I think she would have had every patron in the restaurant demanding for Jangbu to get his job back, if only her grandmother hadn't been so stubborn.

She stubbornly ignored Mia's pleas on Jangbu's behalf, about him being an immigrant, that many busboys are and that they are new to this country, with families to support back in their homelands and so on but Clarisse simply snorted at what Mia was saying.

"Grandmere," Mia cried in desperation, looking beside herself with anger. Another note to self, never, ever, _ever_ piss Mia off! "What makes Jangbu so different from Johanna, the African orphan you are sponsoring on my behalf? Both are merely trying to make their way on this planet we call Earth." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a number of patrons nodding along with what Mia was saying.

"The difference between Johanna and Jangbu," Clarisse snapped, giving Mia this sort of evil eyed glare, "is that Johanna did not SPILL SOUP ALL OVER ME!"

It became pretty clear after that that the argument over Jangbu's job was over.

"Well, that went well." Mia grumbled once we had left the restaurant twenty minutes later. I wrapped an arm around her, sliding us both a little further into the gathering crowd that was gathering outside the Les Hautes Manger. Someone had obviously rung the Papz, because they were starting to push their way through the crowd towards the restaurant.

Lars was close to our side but was making himself look like one of the curious crowd instead of standing out as Mia's bodyguard.

Helen, Mr G and Mia's father came to our side shortly afterwards. Helen looked somewhat smug, though her smug looked was being sent in Mia's Dads direction who was simply rolling his eyes back at her in irritation.

I saw Mia eying them, as if she was waiting for some sort of fight to break out between them. She didn't look concerned or bothered by the idea of them fighting (if fighting was what they were going to do), simply exasperated.

"Where's Grandmere?" Mia asked her father tiredly and he rolled his eyes.

"Has gone back to the Plaza."

"Leaving us with her mess." Mia grumbled as Helen gave a knowing snort.

"Yes, not that you'll be dealing with it." Mia's father said as he took hold of Mia's shoulders and marched her out of the crowd. Once we were clear, he handed her a fifty.

"Go and do something." He said nodding to both of us. "Have her home by ten thirty." He said to me while Helen mouthed 'eleven' at me.

"Yes sir." I said will nodding to Helen who grinned at me.

"Well, we're going to call it a night." Helen said as she hugged Mia before she took Mr G's arm and dragged him towards a taxi line-up.

"Bye Mom. Bye Mr G." Mia called, waving after them. "Bye Dad?" she said to her father.

"Night Mia, Happy Birthday." He gave her a hug before turning to me and held out his hand. "Good night Michael." I shook his hand and he too headed off into the crowd, though almost as soon as he entered the crowd, a huge man started shadowing him.

I glanced at Lars but he didn't look bothered by Mia's father's new shadow and I could only figure that he was Philippe's bodyguard.

"So, what do you want to do?" I asked once we were alone (with Lars standing nearby of course.).

"Um, I don't really know." Mia said with a slight shake of her head, where she now donned her new NYPD bomb squad cap.

"Hungry?" though I found that at that very moment I wasn't.

Mia shook her head again.

"Not really, not after all that. Though, I guess, I wouldn't mind getting a pretzel."

"Pretzel it is then." I said and wrapped an arm around her waist and we started walking towards the pretzel stand that Mia is particularly fond of.

"Hmmm." I said as we walked down Fifth Avenue.

"What?" Mia asked, looking up at me curiously.

"I was just thinking that you were right."

"About?"

"About tonight being a source of free entertainment." I chuckled and she laughed.


	4. Chapter 3

** Author's Note:** Sorry for the delayed update with this chapter. Been having a bit of trouble enroling in my cert 4 Networking course. It's been something close to a nightmare! Had been thinking there that I hadn't passed my cert 3, because they didn't send out my marks from last year! The running around that I had to do today... 'shakes head'. TAFE here in OZ can be truly appauling when it comes to being organised.  
>Anyway, enough of my whining, here is chapter three. I'm sorry to say not Mia's birthday party. No, that's next chapter and you'll be all happy to know that it is a loooong chapter, even longer than Mia's birthday dinner and it was a lot more fun to write. Poor Mike, sometimes he has no clue and simply can not win. Have I mention before how much I love tormenting him? Not the whole depressive gig that I had to write for book three, that wasn't fun at all, but just chapters where I can just mess with him, hehehehe, so much fun. Anyway, enjoy and let me know what you think<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Three<strong>

"So from the sounds of it, Mia's birthday dinner wasn't an overly huge success." Dad said when I walked out into the kitchen the next morning, rubbing my eyes and wishing it was Saturday already. Or even better, Summer Break!

"Huh?" I replied back intelligently as I poured myself a bowl of cereal before flopping down at the kitchen table opposite him, more than half tempted to simply rest my head upon the table top and sleep for another half hour.

Except that my fantastic Dad wouldn't let me. Instead he shoved his morning paper in my direction.

I blinked at it a couple of times, not making overly huge sense of what I was seeing until I rubbed my eyes a bit more, forcing the last of the sleep out of them.

"Oh." I said as I read the heading and recognised the restaurant in the photo underneath. Then I rolled my eyes in disbelief when I discovered that the whole incident had somehow made the front cover of _The Post_.

Must be a slow news day for what happened last night to make front page news, I thought with little humour.

When I finished reading the article which thankfully didn't mention either Mia or me, I noticed that Dad was looking at me with an expecting gaze for me to cough up the dirt on what really happen last night.

I rolled my eyes at him.

"They've pretty much covered the whole story in this." I said, even though I knew they hadn't, in fact they had got it all wrong, making out that Clarisse was the victim and that Jangbu had, for some reason, done the whole thing on purpose though they gave no reason as to why.

Dad gave me a deadpan look, so with a sigh I gave him the cliff-notes version of what had happen last night, which by the time I had finished, he was laughing.

"Well, one thing's for sure; Mia's grandmother is anything but boring." Dad said once he had gotten in control of his laughter.

"I could stand to have her being a little boring." I grumbled grouchily just as Mom and Lil walked into the kitchen looking at Dad in confusion as to why he was laughing.

I noticed with some relief that Mom was carrying the _Times_ and that they clearly had better things to put on their front cover then Mia Grandmother's being covered in lobster bisque.

"Michael, why is the _Times_ reporting an incident occurring last night at Les Hautes Manger between Mia's grandmother and a bowl of lobster bisque?" Mom asked me and I thumped my head against the kitchen table.

Ok, so a really, _really_ slow news day, but at least with the _Times_ the article is in the Metro section and not the front cover, but still! Can't they find something else to report about?

Apparently not, because it quickly became clear that every newspaper had taken it upon themselves to report the incident that had occurred at the Les Hautes Manger last night, each adding their own little twist to the story so as to keep original and to avoid being sued by one of the other papers for copy-right and so on, but still, they all got it wrong about what really happen last night at Les Hautes Manger.

One example of just how wrong they got the facts was _The Daily News_, with their heading _**Princess and the Pea (Soup)**_, when it wasn't pea soup that fell on Clarisse at all but lobster bisque. Just go to show how much Newspapers care about getting the facts right just as long as they can print a good story.

Another thing that they all got wrong was that in all of the articles about what supposedly happen last night, there was absolutely nothing about Rommel's involvement in it what happen. In fact, in all of them, there is no suggestion whatsoever that the whole thing was the silly dog's fault.

I repeated the story of what really happen last night to Mom and Lil, which had Dad chuckling all over again.

"She brought her dog to the restaurant?" Lil asked with raised eyebrows once I had finished. "Why?"

"I don't know," I said as I stood up from the table, stretching to my full height as I did so, "maybe it's the done thing in France." I said with a shrug as I took my bowl over to the sink, giving a quick rinse before stacking it into the dishwasher.

I headed back to my room, to grab my school bag and to do a few last things before I headed down to the lobby.

As I swung my school bag onto my back, I couldn't help but grin down at Pavlov, who was lying upside down at the end of my bed, his tongue lolling out of his mouth and looking completely adorable in a dorky, dog sort of way.

"Good boy," I said as I bent down and gave him a goodbye scratch under his chin, causing his right back leg to start kicking in his sleep. "I don't have to worry about you causing a mess like that rodent dog did, do I? Nope, I don't because you are the best dog ever!" I gave his chin a final scratch, causing him to whine as he cracked one eye open to look up at me imploringly.

"I gotta go." I said chuckling down at him, "I'll see you this afternoon, after computer club and we'll go for a nice long walk, ok." His tail thumped against my bed madly at the word 'walk'.

He stretched his legs into the air before rolling himself off my bed and landing on my bedroom floor with a slight thump as his front legs gave out on him and he landed on his chin, looking most undignified.

He whined as I laughed at him, scrambling to his feet and eying me in the most dejected sort of way.

"You," I said as I bent down and start scratching his ears, causing once more his tail to thump against the floor along with his right back paw to bounce up and down, "are the King of Guilt Trips! Did you know that?" Pavlov simply whined as he fell against me, begging for his tummy to be scratched. Which I did for a minute or two before it became quite clear from both my watch and Lil's yelling that it was time to go.

"Sorry boy. Gotta go. Be good for Maya, ok." I said as I stood up and wiped his fur off my pants. He gave me another whine before bounding out of my room, walking me to the front door before bouncing off to get his breakfast that I had put out for him in the kitchen.

God, I was going to miss him when I went to Columbia. Why did I have to have a roommate, why couldn't I just have my dog with me instead?

And while I'm at it, couldn't I just take Mia with me too? I thought when I saw her limo pull up out front of my building and she opened the door for us to get in.

"Morning." Mia said as we got in. she looked a little tired, as if she hadn't slept much last night and I felt myself suddenly start to worry that she might be blaming herself for Jangbu dismissal. Which is silly, but something that I know she does, blame herself for things that are beyond her control and are by no means her fault at all.

"Well, your grandmother's certainly done it this time." Lil said almost immediately after she had said good morning.

I saw Mia pull a face and I knew that she was, indeed blaming herself for what had happen. I sat back and listen to Lil inform Mia about it being in every newspaper, even in the Times Metro section, which had Mia's mouth drop in disbelief.

"Haven't they got anything better to report about?" Mia asked, looking thoroughly annoyed. "Must be a really slow news day." She added crankily as she crossed her arms across her chest and scowled out the limo's window.

"What we'll do," Lil started causing Mia to look away from the window and to eye her curiously, though I noted a hint of reservation as well, "is we'll start making signs in Gifted and Talented class, and then we'll go over after school." Mia looked at her blankly before looking at me.

I simply shrugged, already deciding that whatever mad plan Lil has come up with now, I was going to take no part in it. If only it was so easy for Mia, who I knew was going to be dragged into Lil's plan whether she likes it or not.

"Go over where?" Mia asked cautiously as if she too was detecting that this was another one of Lil's mad plans that she wasn't going to like.

"To Les Hautes Manger," Lil exclaimed as if Mia was a simpleton, "To start the protest."

There was a slight pause in the limo, where the rest of us (Mia, Lars and I) simply stared at her, before Mia spluttered out, "What protest?"

It was becoming quite obvious to Lil that Mia wasn't as onboard as she had been obviously hoping she would be about this. But then, Mia seemed to be thinking of other things other than what Lil was talking about.

Sometimes, I really do wish there was a way to read a person minds, because during times like these, I would dearly love to know what Mia is thinking when my sister is more or less shrieking at her.

"The protest against their unfair dismissal of Jangbu Pinasa!" Lil shrieked dragging Mia completely out of whatever had been occupying her thoughts for most of the limo ride to school. Mia stared at her for a moment, looking like she was about to start her own protest, before slouching in her seat and looking crankily out the window again.

"I'm never going to hear the end of this." she grumbled as we all got out of her limo when it arrived at school.

"It might not be so bad." I reassured but she gave me a deadpan expression and pointed to the student body of AEHS who were standing about on the front steps of AEHS, all of them with their heads in a newspaper.

She sighed heavily, bracing herself against the onslaught of comments and jeers that were going to be hauled her direction for a large part of the day.

Sure enough, almost as soon as we reached the front steps the jeers started. Mia ignored them and kept walking up the steps even though she did pick up speed almost as soon as we reached the top and bolting off for her locker before Lil or I could say anything to her.

"Maybe you shouldn't do your protest." I said to Lil as we walked for our respective lockers, "You know that it will only cause them," I gestured to the immature morons around us, "to give Mia more grief over this."

"No."

"Lil, come on. She's your best friend." She started to protest but I continued on, "Look, I know what happen to this guy was really wrong and unfair, but it's Mia who is the one who is suffering the most from what the newspapers are saying."

"But by holding our protest, we'll set the newspapers right and they'll leave her along. We'll bring justice to someone who can't stand up for himself and Mia won't feel bad or that it's her fault about his dismissal. This protest is the best thing that we can do!" Lil exclaimed and I shook my head.

"I doubt that that's how this is all going to turn out, Lil." I said before leaving her to her delusions and headed for my locker.

* * *

><p>I was able to ignore most the comments that were circulating around the school about what a drama Mia's Grandmother could make over a little bit of soup (it was actually a large amount soup. I wouldn't have been overly thrilled if I had had a huge bowl of soup, especially lobster bisque, dumped all over me, but I wouldn't be publicising it to the whole flipping world and I wouldn't probably get the busboy who dumped it on me, by accident by means of tripping over my own dog, fired. But then, that's just me.).<p>

I'm lucky that I have friends who find this sort of thing to be amusing rather than a means of teasing me and my girlfriend. They found what happen last night to be simply amusing, but that was how far it went.

But no one was going on about it for as long or as loudly as Lil was, as I saw in G&T where she was sitting at one of the tables in the classroom, her ear pressed to a mobile. A mobile that wasn't hers, that is saying, if she had one, which she doesn't, for the obvious reason of her personality and what she might do if she ever got her hands on one.

"What she doing?" I asked as I came to sit beside Mia, who was looking at my sister with a great deal of irritation.

"Trying to track down Jangbu home phone number." Mia grumbled.

"On your phone?" I guess and she pulled a face at me.

"I haven't even used it." She said looking annoyed and I chuckled as I pulled out my laptop.

I worked on my laptop while Mia did a few algebra equations before she started writing in her journal. Lil alternated between ringing and talking to people on Mia's mobile phone and creating signs for her protest.

After awhile, Lil bumped Mia, causing Mia to look up from her journal as Lil pushed this giant sign in front of her. I tilted to see it before having to fight back a snort as I read what Lil had written on it with a big, black marker.

LES HAUTES MANGER IS UN-AMERICAN!

"Um, Lilly," Mia started slowly as she looked up from the sign to Lil, "everybody already knows that Les Hautes Manger is un-American. It's a French restaurant." Out of the corner of my eye I saw Lars laughing silently behind us.

"Just because its owner was born in France is no reason for him to think he does not have to abide our nation's laws and social customs."

"Yeah and I thought one of our laws was that people could pretty much hire and fire who they want. You know, within certain parameters." Mia pointed out.

I leant forward in my chair, over my computer to try and control my laughter at that, because, of course, Mia was right.

Lil shot me a withering look before she snapped at Mia, "Just whose side are you on in this, anyway, Mia?"

"Yours, of course" Mia said quickly and I rolled my eyes in exasperation, "I mean, Jangbu's." she added somewhat sheepishly.

Mia handed Lil back her sign and told her that she wouldn't be able to come to Lil's protest this afternoon because she had princess lessons with her grandmother. Lil's eyes started to narrow and I knew a fight between them was going to break out.

"So, you are more concerned about yourself than you are about Jangbu's three starving children."

Huh? What was Lil on about?

Mia looked just as confused as I felt about that statement.

"How do you know he even has kids? Him having kids wasn't mention in the newspaper and you haven't been able to get in contact with him, so how do you know he even has any?"

"I meant figuratively, not literally." Lil snapped and I heard Mia sigh heavily.

"Look, I'll try and talk Grandmere into talking to the owner of Les Hautes Manger about re-hiring Jangbu." Mia said sighing clearly trying to compromise. It seemed to satisfy Lil for the moment, since she left Mia alone after that and Mia went back to writing in her journal.

* * *

><p>"I'm dead." Jude informed me during computer club this afternoon.<p>

"Really?" I said, looking up from the computer I was working on at her in amusement. "cos, you don't look very dead to me. Can't see any rotting flesh at all." She hit me with a spare mouse that had been lying nearby.

"God, where do you keep finding those?" I asked as I pressed my hand to the side of my head where she had hit me with the mouse. Hard, I might add. She started swing the mouse's cord in a threatening manner, making me roll my computer chair a little further away from her. "You know, in a weird way that could have been taken as a compliment, the not rotting flesh part, I mean." I defended weakly, waiting with the surety that I was going to be hit with the mouse again.

Jude simply glared at me, before asking icily, "Do you say those types of things to Mia?"

It was becoming extremely clear that her sense of humour was no longer offering us any company today.

"Yup," I said quickly, "She laughs." Jude continued to simply glare at me, the mouse still hanging threateningly between her fingers.

I eye it for a moment before sighing. "Fine, I'll be good and I'll bite. Why are you dead?"

"We graduate in week's time." Jude said mournfully, while I looked at her as if she was insane. Wasn't graduating from High School supposed to be a good thing? But being the kind and considerate friend that I am, I decided that I would respond to that statement not with a why is that a bad thing, but rather with a smart-ass comment.

"Really? Funny that, because you know, that's generally what happens at the end of high school. We graduate. They trap us here for four years, get whatever value that can get out of us while we're stuck here and then they kick us out into the big, wide world, for us to then discover that everything that they've been teaching us for the past four years is, in fact, a pile of useless crap and that it won't get us anywhere in the world."

"You are a very down person, you know that right?" Jude informed me though I could see the tell-tale signs of a smile starting to creep across her lips.

"No, I'm realistic. But hey, I'm the one looking at the bright side of this; you're the one whose dreading graduation."

She was starting to look mildly amused now as she waited for me to continue.

"For example," I continued as I looked around the computer room that served as the computer club's "base", "all these people that we see every day," I said waving my hand around the lab, "after graduation, will vanish from our lives and we'll never have to see or think or hear from them ever again."

Judith lips twitched into a smile as thought over that.

"I suppose there is that. But that doesn't solve my immediate problem."

"Oh?" because for a moment I had no clue what she was talking about.

She gave me a deadpan look.

"Paul and Felix." She reminded me and I sighed.

"Oh, that." I said with a heavy sigh and she looked at me with exasperation, "You still haven't been able to decide between them huh?" she shook her head miserably.

"Even after going out on dates with both of them?" she shook her head again.

"Still can't, I think those dates just made me like them both even more."

"So what you going to do?" because truthfully this was getting ridiculous and Trevor's suggestion about tossing all three of them into a room to sort it out amongst themselves was becoming a more appealing idea with each passing day.

"Well, I was half expecting them to lose interest by now." Jude defended when she obviously saw something in my look that I was giving her that she didn't like. "Or at least Felix." So had I actually. I mean, Felix hasn't dated someone as long as he's tried to win Jude.

"They like you, a lot." Was all I could think to reply with and she sighed heavily, looking towards where Paul was helping some freshman with a game that they were creating.

"Yeah, I know. I just wish I wasn't in this position. I know, you keep telling me to choose but it's not that easy. It's freaky hard, just when I think I've decided on one the other does something that then tips the scales in his favour. It completely sucks!" she actually looked close to tears.

"Jude." I said moving back to where she was sitting, now that I was fairly sure I wasn't going to be assaulted by the mouse again, "you can't keep this up; you have to either choose one of them or let them both know that things aren't going to change." I said gently.

"Yeah, I know." She whispered softly.

* * *

><p>I got home just as Lil did, which surprised me, since she had left school right on the home bell.<p>

"Where have you been?" I asked as we hopped into the elevator and she had pressed the button for our floor.

"None of your business." Lil shot back at me without looking at me. I narrowed my eyes at her.

"What are you up to?" I demanded and she glared up at me.

"Again, none of your business." She replied and I rolled my eyes at her, before I felt a light blub light up in my head.

"The protest?"

Lil rolled her eyes at me in disgust.

"How did it go?" I asked fighting the desire to just roll my eyes back at her. She sniffed and stuck her nose in the air.

"It went quite well, thank you very much."

"Really?" I asked, possibly a tiny bit surprised by this. This was of course not the right thing to say, Lil scowled at me before shoving past me and left the elevator, stomping down corridor for our apartment, with me rolling my eyes after her.

As soon as I got into the apartment, Pavlov greeted me with happy barks.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, walkies time. Just let me get change first." I said to him as I walked, with him on my heels, to my room. I changed out of my uniform and into a pair of jeans and shirt, calling to Maya as I left the apartment that I was taking Pavlov for a walk.

Taking Pavlov for a walk, surprise as this may be, is actually one of my favourite things to do. I don't know why, I just do.

I walked Pavlov for an hour around Central Park, passing by the Plaza, knowing that Mia was in one of the suites on the upper floors, being tortured by her grandmother most likely. I thought about sticking around, but it was getting dark and Pavlov was beginning to whine for his dinner.

"You do realise that you are missing out on seeing Mia, right?" I told him as we walked back in the direction of home. Mia being, after all, Pavlov's most favourite human on the face of the planet. Even though I'm the one who feeds and spends the most time with him over all, he still loves Mia more than me.

* * *

><p>When I got back home, I emailed Mia, asking her if she was ok, since she was so quiet during G&amp;T. She replied twenty minutes later.<p>

_**FtLouie**_

_Hey! I'm fine. Thanks for asking. I'm just can't shake this feeling lately that there's something I've forgotten. I can't quite put my finger on what it is, though. Something to do with this time of year, though, I think…_

I honestly had no idea what she was on about, so instead I replied with;

_**LinuxRulz**_

_Well, judging by the C you got on the quiz today; I'd say you're forgetting is everything we've been going over these past few weeks in Algebra. If you want, I'll come over on Sunday and help you with Monday's assignment._

She replied, thanking me before saying that she was going to go to bed early. Yeah, something is so up, though what? I have no idea. And it wasn't like I could ask Lil, because I doubted she knew.

Mia isn't as big on sharing things with Lil as she used to, which is annoying for me because now I can't ferret out what may be upsetting Mia from Lil. Not that it was an easy task when Mia was still telling Lil everything, but now, it's near impossible.

I swear, one of these days, I'm really going to have to find away to sneak a look into Mia's journal because I swear it's getting harder and harder to know what is going on in that head of hers.


	5. Chapter 4

**Author's Note:** Well, here is the chapter that I'm pretty sure a lot of you have been dying to read! Michael's reaction towards everything that happened at Mia's Birthday Party! Hehehe, honestly, poor Mike has no clue. I was torn between wanting to hug him and smacking him over the back of the head while writing this chapter. He's just so hopeless, but still we love him.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Four<strong>

"Michael?" I swivelled around in my computer chair as Mom stuck her head around my door.

"Hey Mom. What's up?" Mom just shrugged.

"I was just wondering when you'll be going over to Mia's."

"Her party is at eight." I told and she nodded.

"That's what I thought," Mom said slowly as she looked down at her watch, which read, I know from my computer screen, ten past seven.

"Why?" I asked.

"I was just wondering where your sister was. She didn't go over to Mia's early did she?"

"Not that I know of." I said and Mom started biting her lip, so I hurriedly added, "but she doesn't tell me anything, so she probably is or maybe she's with one of their friends and is going over to Mia's with them."

"She's been out all day." Mom continued worriedly.

"Lil's almost always out all of Saturday." I reminded her and she sighed.

"I do know she was leading the protests against Les Hautes Manger for the unfair dismissal of that poor boy, but I thought that she would be home before now. I mean..."

"Mom." I stopped her before she could work herself too much into a fit. "She's probably with Boris. He was with her at the protest, so they're probably hanging out before Mia's party."

Mom sighed before smiling at me.

"You're probably right." Then she smiled at me, "I'm being silly, aren't I?"

"Nah, you're just being a Mom." I replied and she came over and hugged me.

"Thank you, Sweetie. You will tell Mia that we wish her a very happy birthday, won't you?"

"Yeah, Mom, like I told her on Thursday." I laughed and Mom gave me a half-hearted glare.

"And you'll give her this too, won't you." Mom said as she handed me a square shape present wrapped in gold and silver paper.

"What's this?" I asked her, looking from it to her. Mom only smiled back at me secretively.

"Her birthday present from us, of course, sweetie, you don't think we forgot, do you?" Mom teased, while I rolled my eyes.

"I swear that you love her more than you do Lil and me." I said with a grin as I turned off my computer and pulled on my jacket, thinking that it was about time that I made tracks and headed over to Mia's.

"Well," Mom started with an amused grin.

"Yeah, ok." I said laughing. "I know, she is probably far easier to love than say Lil and me."

"In some ways," Mom agreed as she kissed my cheek, "but we still love you."

"Even though we are huge pains in the ass due to the fact that we must always be right?" I asked and Mom laughed again.

"Comes with having geniuses for children." She replied, "Now go on, have a good time and say hi to Helen and Frank for us, won't you."

"Yes, Mom."

"And make sure Lilly comes home with you." Mom warned and I nodded.

"I will. Mom, don't worry, you know how Lil is with time. She probably lost track of it and when she finally checked her watch, she didn't have time to come home because then she'd be late for Mia's party."

Mom just looked at me for a moment before shaking her head with a faint smile on her lips.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing. You're just a good big brother to her." I gave her an 'are you insane' look.

"Bye Mom." I said before she could become anymore sentimental.

"Bye sweetheart. Have a good time."

* * *

><p>I was one of the first couple of people to arrive at Mia's party, arriving after Tina and Boris (who apparently arrived half an hour earlier than he was meant to, so had spent the past thirty minutes reading all of the Chinese menus that were posted in the lobby.) had.<p>

"Hey." I said as Mia opened her front door and let me to the loft.

"Hi." She said as I hugged her.

I noted she sounded a little glum, but before I could ask her what was wrong, Shameeka and Ling Su arrived. Mia darted around me to take their coats because besides the fact that it's May it's still chilly outside and quickly storing them in her hall closet while gesturing that they should make their way to the lounge room.

"Hey." I said as she carefully put all their coats on hangers in the closet, "My sister isn't here, is she?" Mia looked away from what she was doing to up at me, a slight frown between her already distracted eyes. God, mind reading abilities would be so useful right about now.

Mia shook her head.

"Boris says that the last time he saw her was during the march this afternoon. He stopped for a hot dog and got left behind." Her lips twitched in a small smile at that, while I rolled my eyes in slight amusement. "Why?"

"Ah, she just didn't come home after the march and Mom is a tad worried about her, that's all." I added when I saw Mia's eyes widen in slight alarm. "I'm sure she's fine, just off doing her own thing, you know how she is." Mia nodded though she still looked a tad worry herself.

"Anyway," I said, trying to ease some of her worry, "here, this is from my Mom and Dad." I said as I handed her the gold and silver wrapped parcel which she took in surprise.

"They didn't have to get me anything." She said as she looked from it to up at me.

I shrugged.

"I know and they know, but you know how they are. Plus," I said as I leant for a little so that our foreheads bumped against each other, "you are their favourite child." She thumped my shoulder good-naturedly with her fist as her face went bright red, but you could tell she was pleased. It might sound weird, but I know how much Mia adores my parents. Yeah, she never calls them by their first names and is at times overly polite to them, but I know that she's adopted them as much as her second set of parents as they have adopted her as their third child. I'm not saying that Helen and Philippe are bad parents or anything like that, but I know that there were times when Mia was younger when she really did feel quite alone in the world, what with her Dad half-way around the globe and her absent-minded mother being completely absorbed in her work, there were times that she felt parentless. And that was generally when she came to spend a week or so over at ours.

I watched as she carefully opened Mom and Dad's present to her, how careful she was not to rip the gold and silver paper. I honestly don't know how she can be so patient.

It was a Journal.

A new one to replace the one that she has almost filled now. The Journal's cover was made from fake leather that had been dyed a soft royal blue colour, with Mia's name engraved on the front of it. The best thing about the journal was that when she has finished writing in it, instead of simply having to go out and buy a whole new journal, she simply needs to slide the used booklet out of the journal's leather cover and replace it with a new booklet (of the same size of course), due to the face that the leather cover is removable.

It was a surprising or really un-surprisingly, thoughtful gift that my parents had given her.

Mia beamed up at me as she hugged her new journal close to her chest, before giving me a quick kiss on the mouth before ducking off quickly to put her new journal safely away in her room.

After that, I left her to greet her guests while I went and organised the music, even though the mix that I've created for Mia's party is mainly filled with bands that I distaste. I, at least, have the knowledge that I'm expanding Mia's taste in music, introducing her to bands that she has either not heard of before or has but has never bothered to listen to them before I showed her that they really weren't that bad. So while I couldn't put in any of those bands upon the mix I made, I, at least, know Mia listens to them now and that she actually enjoys listening to them too.

Mr G shot me an amused grin when he saw me, coming over to where I was and asked me how SkinnrBx, my band, was going.

We had a pretty good conversation about it, as we watched more of Mia's friends (a few of them were mine too) arrive.

He gave me some pretty good tips too about how keep the band running smoothly after he told me that he too was in a band during his late high school and early college years. And even though he's band did break up mid-way through his second year of college, he's still in contact with most of them and sometimes they still get together and play. Just for fun and for old time's sake, he informed me.

It was an hour into the party before my sister graced us with her presence and with another presence's that left Mia apparently dumbstruck as she made her way to her bedroom to put their coats away, since the hall closet was already filled with everyone else. I stopped her halfway, confused by her obvious dazed expression, at the moment, not knowing that it was my sister who had caused it.

"Having fun yet?" I asked her, even though so far all I had seen her doing during the first hour of her party was greeting people and hanging up their coats.

She shook her head but before I could ask why, she asked, "Did you see that?"

At first I was thinking she was talking about Boris try and failed attempted to do the electric slide that Shameeka was trying (and failing) to teach him. His last attempted had actually caused him to fall down on his ass which had caused everyone at the party to laugh good-naturedly at him. He, too, was laughing as he got up and asked Shameeka if she could show him again how it was done.

"Your sister and Jangbu?" I was half-tempted to ask who, rattling my brain on why the name sounded so familiar when I was fairly sure that I had never met him before, though when I looked where Mia was pointing I recognised him immediately.

I wanted to ask why he was here, though I realised that wasn't what was bothering Mia, well not all that was bothering her, so instead I went, "No. What?"

She opened her mouth as if to tell me, but seemed to think better of it, so instead simply shook her head and said "Nothing.", while forcing herself to smile.

I gave her something of a deadpan expression for that, because I knew that she was lying or at least withholding information that was clearly bothering her. But before I could drill her about what exactly had her so high strung she was bolting for her bedroom with Lil's and Jangbu's coats.

Though when she came back out of her room, she seemed to be trying to get over whatever was bothering her and joined in with the fun of her party, because it actually was. Fun, that is.

It's been years since I've been to a party like this. When it's one of my friends birthday, say Felix or Paul's, we usually get take-out, pizza or something from Number One Noodle Son and then play either video or computer games at whoever's birthday it is place for a couple of hours.

That was basically how birthdays were celebrated with my friends and I mean, my birthday, is during winter break and I'm usually at my grandparents condo during then, so my last actual birthday party I had was probably when I was twelve. And I usually stay clear of Lil's birthday parties, even though, if I do hang around in my room during them, I can usually score some cake from Mia who snuck me a piece while everyone else was distracted with something else.

See, I have a nice girlfriend even before she was my girlfriend, even when I was being a complete ass towards her, she was still kind. Which is why I am forcing myself to put up with the bad music that was playing on the mix that I have created for her party.

It took a little while, but soon she was smiling and having fun with everyone else, bouncing and dancing around. She might be a klutz normally, but Mia is actually a surprisingly good dancer.

Anyway, she seemed to have shaken her bad mood when Tina unexpectedly came over to where Mr G was sitting at the kitchen table, reading a book, saying, "Mr G, we're out of coke."

_Huh_?

I looked around and was surprised to see that yeah, we were, though I was sure that there had still been a box only a little while ago. Anyway, I wasn't the only one to be surprised y this news.

Mr G looked up from his book and up at Tina in surprise at what she was telling him, saying, "How can that be? I bought seven flats of it at the drive-through liquor store this morning."

It was when Tina continued insist that we were out that sparked my suspicion, especially when I saw the look that Mia was sending in her direction. I think Mia would have stalked over to them if Shameeka and Ling Su weren't being so insistent that she stay and talk with them.

"Well, I'll run down Grand Union and buy more." Mr G said as he got up from the table, walked to the hall closet and pulled out his coat.

Almost as soon as he left Ling Su asked Helen (who had come out of her bedroom to say goodbye to Mr G) asking if she (Ling Su) could see Helen's slides. Helen looked thrilled and happily ushered Ling Su into her bedroom to show her slides.

I looked towards Mia whose head hanging was down as Tina switched off Mia's CD player and announced that we were going to play Seven Minutes in Heaven. Of course everyone got excited at the idea of playing. Well, when I say everyone, what I mean is, I wasn't, Jangbu simply looked a little taken aback while Mia simply shook her head. Obviously, she had had some idea that this was going to happen and wasn't at all happy about it.

Nor was I.

And not because I have anything against being locked in an enclosed space with Mia, which is what ended up happening next, with Tina, giggling madly, shutting us up in Mia's hall closet. Hardly, being shut in the hall closest with Mia was the best part of the situation. It was simply the fact, that just outside the closest closed door that we had just been locked into, I suspect that everyone currently present at Mia's party, minus, of course Helen and Mr G (Thank God! Thought, I'm not entirely sure who I fear more; Mr G or Mia's Dad. Mr G, while yeah there might not be so much he can do to me, what with my time at High School coming to an end, but I'm pretty sure murder is still an option to finding his just turned fifteen year old step-daughter locked in the hall closet with her three year _older_ boyfriend. And I shudder to think what Mia's Dad might have Lars do to me if he ever found out about this), were outside, listening in. Kinda kills the mood a bit, doncha think?

I mention this to Mia, not the fear of either her father or step-father or both killing me if we were discovered in here by either her mother or Mr G when he came back with more coke, but about my suspicion that everyone at her party was standing outside the closet door, listening.

"Nobody's listening." She started, her voice slightly muffled, "See? They've turned the music back on." She soothed and despite my reservations about this, how can I possibly say no to that voice?

But still, I had to try. I have no idea as to why I had to try and talk Mia out of this, a part of my brain was in fact telling me to just shut the hell up already and kiss her, but something told me that it was the right thing to do, to give her a chance to back out of this situation

"So we really have to stay in here for seven minutes?" _Like you didn't already know that!_ The annoyed-just-kiss-her-already voice bellowed from the depths of my mind.

"I guess."

"What if Mr. G gets back and finds us in here?"

"He'll probably kill you." She replied surprisingly calmly.

_Ye-ah, thanks a lot for the concern sweetheart_, I thought a little dryly at her calm tone. But at least death by Mr G should be quicker than say, death by Lars.

"Well," I said as I shifted around a little in the closet to get more comfortable before I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her closer to me, causing our noses to brush against each other, "then I'd better give you something to remember me by." And then I started kissing her.

And I have to admit that, after that, I did sort of start to enjoy the game.

Mia and I don't get a lot of time or privacy to simply make-out, so I was making the most of the situation. Even with the musty smell that had been overwhelmingly strong when Mia and I were first pushed into the closet, now it no longer bothered me, all my attention focused on the girl in my arms. Damn, Felix was right about kissing. That is, when you're kissing the right person.

I was quite happy to do just that for the rest of her party, except that after a bit, Mia pulled her mouth away from mine, asking, "So, Michael, what is up with the prom? Are we going, or not?"

What? Prom?

_What_?

I chuckled as I brushed my mouth against her neck, saying against it, "The prom? Are you crazy? The prom's even stupider than this game." She squirmed at that, breaking away from me.

"What do you mean?"

"Mia," I started moving towards her, brushing my hands up and down her arms, "You've got to be kidding. I'm not exactly the prom type." Though a voice in my head, a different one to the one that was telling me to shut up, agree to do whatever it was she wanted so that we could get back kissing, muttered something about my going to other dances for her, asking what was so different between the prom and them.

She batted my hands away, not particularly hard, but enough for me to know she was annoyed about something.

"What do you mean; you're not the prom type?" Mia grumbled, "You're a Senior. You're graduating. You have to go to the prom. Everyone does it." Oh god, she wants to go. Not that really I should be surprised by that and not because of the fact that she's a girl and basically all girls want to go to prom, heck even girls like Lil and Judith want to go to prom, but rather because Mia likes dancing. She's good at it and she likes doing it. It's the one good thing about going to all the Balls her grandmother drags her to, she's told me, is because she gets to dance.

_Just agree to take her already_, bellowed the shut up and kiss her voice, but my pride and stubbornness (or pig-headiness as Lil occasionally dubs my stubbornness) were both up and ready to pick a fight.

"Yeah," I replied, "Well, everybody does lots of lame stuff. But that doesn't mean I'm going to, too. I mean, come on, Mia." I knew I must have been sounding close to begging now. Look, if she wanted me to go to a ball with her, with all the stuck-up, rich people, put up with her grandmother and having to wear suit, fine, I'll do it. I'd ask for some kind of compensation in return of course (dragging her off to a dark corner of the ballroom and having a serious make-out session with her), but I'd still do it. But take her to the prom, my high school prom, uh no way. I'm sorry wrong number.

Those other dances that I went to because I was trying to get together with her and to show her support and that I cared and to also make up for the huge humiliation that I had caused her, and to clear up that huge misunderstanding. But those days are over!

"Proms are for the Josh Richters of the world." Which is another reason I don't want to go to the prom. Bad enough, with the school dances, you have to mix with people of all the years from your school, but prom, you're stuck with just your year and no offences to all of them, but I've had quite enough of them all at this point in time, so that spending a night with them all of them, even with Mia, is not high on my list of things to do in the next couple of weeks. In fact, prom wasn't even on my list of things to do in the coming weeks.

"Oh, really?" ah, crap! I've messed up. I felt like banging my head against the closet wall. Why couldn't she understand that the prom just simply wasn't something that guys like me, went too. Even when they did have absolutely gorgeous girlfriends like her. It just wasn't done. "What then, do the Michael Moscovitzes" yeah, I am so much trouble with her, she's said my full name, all she's missing was the 'James' (and she does know my middle name too) part of it, "of the world do on prom night."

In truth, I had no idea. Probably play video or computer games like it was any other Saturday night. That's what I usually did when dances were on before I was trying to win Mia and forcing myself to go to them.

_They weren't all bad_, a reasoning voice muttered at the back of my head.

_Not helping_, I thought back,_ I'm still not going_.

"I don't know." I said and heard her huff, "we could do more of _this_, if you want." I said trying to pacify her some. Having Mia mad at me is not a fun experience, even worse than having her grandmother glare at me. Also, I was kind of hopeful that she would agree and I could go back to kissing her.

"Michael," Oh god, her princess voice is on and by her princess voice, I don't mean it's high-pitch and simpering, but rather it's put an even more serious edge to her already cranky tone, "I'm serious." _I know you are, why do you think I'm trying to talk you out of it_, I thought desperately. "If you don't plan on going to the prom, just what, exactly, do you intend to do instead?" You mean besides figuring out a way of getting you to stop being pissed off at me? I wanted to say but I didn't think that would be the best thing to say considering the circumstances. Our first ever, real fight and it's about PROM! Well, I guess it could be worse, way worse in fact, but still, PROM?

"I don't know." I said again, trying to gain time to think of a way that would make her happy and un-pissed at me again, "Go bowling?" Since Mia has a wicked arm and can basically beat whoever she's playing with within about ten minutes flat, time does vary due to how many people she's playing against.

This clearly wasn't the right thing to say, because she was still holding herself stiffly away from me and I'm sure was glaring at me through the darkness. I couldn't actually see her face because of the darkness of the closet but then, that was probably a blessing, in a way.

"Mia," I groaned, wiggling over to her and wrapping my arms around her again and even though she didn't return the gesture, I still felt her relax a little against my embrace. So even though she was mad at me, she wasn't so mad (yet) as to tell me to go the hell away, "Come on. Admit it. The prom is the corniest thing in the world." I mean, she's gone to balls! Proper Balls! In a proper ballroom, where the dances you do in them are like the waltz and what not. She's been to the real deal! Why the hell would she, after seeing and being at a real, proper ball, want to go to AESH Senior Prom? "I mean, you spend money on some rented penguin suit," even though I now have my own. Thanks a heap Mom, " you can't even get comfortable in," I'm not even comfortable in my own suit, let alone a rented one, "then spend a ton on money on dinner somewhere fancy that probably isn't half as good as Number One Noodle Son, then you go and stand around in some gymnasium - "

"Maxim's," Mia corrected me and I noted that her French accent was beginning to become more pronounced, something that only happens when she is really angry or becoming upset. I honestly, by this point, didn't know which one I'd preferred to deal with since with her changing accent, she had once more grown stiff against me. Her being angry with me means… well, actually I don't know because I've never had her mad at me before. Upset with me, well, last time that had happen she went and sat on her fire escape for something like three hours. At night, when it was snowing. Anyway, neither are really preferable. Mad at me, upset with me, whatever, which ever, because what it really comes down to is the fact that she is unhappy and she is unhappy because of me.

_Just say you'll take her to the flipping prom already_, voices within my head were screaming at me. But I was on a roll now, and the more I had defend my reasons to Mia on why I didn't want to go to prom had made me want to go to prom even less than I had before. "Your Senior Prom is taking place at Maxim's"

"Whatever," I said because I honestly didn't care where it was, I was too busy trying to convince her that prom was lame, that I really didn't want to go, and to somehow compromise with her so that she'd be happy again. Except that my mouth, despite my desire to make her happy, seemed to have other ideas, which was upsetting her more with saying, "so you go and eat stale cookies and dance to really, really bad music with a bunch of people you can't stand and who you never want to see again - "

"Like me, you mean?" Her French accent was now dominating her words and she sounded like she was going to cry. "You never want to see me again? Is that it?"What – the - _hell_? "You're just going to graduate and go off to college and forget all about me?" WHAT? Yeah, like that was going to happen! Wait, was this what had been really worrying her? Not about us going the prom at all, but rather my graduating AEHS, going to college and forgetting about her?

"Mia," I said softly because I was now realising just how much she must have been freaking out about this, my leaving and forgetting her. Like I could ever do that? How could she even think I could ever forget her? I love her. "Of course not." I managed to pull her a bit more against me and have her relax once more, "I wasn't talking about you." I soothed her gently. I love you, silly. "I was talking about people like… well, like Josh and those guys. You know that. What's the matter with you?" I asked, hoping that she would tell me what was really bothering her, to then convince her that my graduating and leaving for college wouldn't change my feelings for her. If anything, being apart from her would probably only make my feeling for her stronger.

Like when I tried avoiding her when I first discover my more than platonic feelings for her, instead of getting rid of them when I put distance between us, it, in fact, only intensified them.

I wanted to tell her all this, especially when I heard her sniff, thinking, oh god, I've made her cry again, only for the closet door to suddenly be wrenched open and for light to suddenly pour in with Boris loudly proclaiming, "Time's up!" at the top of his voice.

It took me several moments to remember where we were and why we were sitting in a musty closet. I got out of the hall closet slowly, helping Mia out of it as well; I knew she was still mad at me, even though she wasn't showing it and kept holding my hand once we were out, but what I could do about it at her party?

I guess I wasn't overly surprised by what happen next, which was my darling little sister proclaiming that it was, "My turn! My turn!" at the top of her voice, barrelling for the closet with Jangbu Pinasa being dragged behind her.

I don't think I've seen so many mouths drop at the same time by this.

I glanced at Boris, who seemed to have not quite clicked on to what had just happened or rather, what his girlfriend of eight months had just done to him, at her best friend's birthday party.

"Tough break man." I said as I placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.

I mean, what else was I suppose to say? I mean, have I not been predicting, basically from the moment that they got together that Lil was going to hurt him in some way or other. So in a way, by Lil doing this, it's actually the least painful way for them to break up. I mean, a quick break up with Lil would be way, way better than a long, drawn out one, because I know, my sister is a bitch and if she wants someone to hurt, she'll make them feel as if she's ripping out their guts, that's how horrible and mean my sister can get if it suits her.

Of course, not everyone thinks this way. Even Mia, who knows firsthand how awful my sister can be and has said, countless times, that she doesn't quite understand why Lil and Boris are still together and about how badly Lil has been known to treat him, can't understand how everyone else is simply standing by and letting Lil get away what she is doing.

"That's it? That's all you're going to do?" She squeaked as she followed me the table that was set up with refreshments.

Her eyes were wide and shocked, though from what Lil had/was doing more than from my lack of intervention to stop her from doing what she's currently doing. Though for some reason, I felt the need to play dumb, maybe in cowardly way of diverting some of Mia's anger at me more towards my sister's direction.

"About what?"

"About your sister!"Mia cried. "And Jangbu!"Well, at least she's no longer thinking about prom.

"What do you want me to do about it?" I asked in amusement. I know, I'm terrible, but I can't help but like winding up my girlfriend, especially when she makes it so easy for me to do so, "haul him out and hit him?" of course I was expecting her to say no, except that…

"Well… Yes!" I had to fight the need to keep from cracking up at her at that, if only because I was drinking 7-Up, since there is no coke left… apparently, and I didn't want to spew it up all over her. I very much doubt she would appreciate that, even if she wasn't in the mood that she was currently in.

"Why?" I asked carefully as I took another drink of 7-Up, "I don't care who my sister locks herself in the closet with." Ok, so I do, in a way, but seriously what's the worst that could happen… ok, so I do know what the worst that could happen, but in seven minutes?

Beside Jangbu hadn't been exactly what you'd call overly thrilled about being dragged into the closet by my sister.

Seriously, the worst case scenario is just them mucking around. I very much doubt that sex is involved.

"If it were you," I continued on calmly, "then I'd hit the guy." I'd do more than just hit him actually, more like have Lars hold him down while I turned him into a Cream of Wheat. "But it's not you, it's Lilly. Lilly, as I believe she's amply proved over the years, can take care of herself." Which is actually the real reason why I'm not doing as Mia has suggested and dragged Jangbu out on his ass and hit him already.

Seriously, Mia has been inflicted with as many, if not more, of Lil's lethal shin kicks, she should know by now that if something is happening to Lil that she doesn't like then she'll deal with it with a ankle-shattering kick and since I'm not hearing any screams of pain over the music, I'm guessing everything is ok… not that I really want to be thinking overly much about what my sister and Jangbu are up to. Bet they're not arguing about the stupid prom, I thought grouchily.

I held out at a bowl of Cheetos to Mia asking if she wanted some. She shook her head.

"No, thank you. But aren't you at all worried that Lilly's - " she was less angry now and more worried, gnawing heavily upon her bottom lip.

"Been swept off her feet by the guy's rugged Sherpa good looks." I finished for her with a shake of my head. "Looked to me like if anybody is being taken advantage of, it's Jangbu. The poor guy doesn't seem to know what hit him." Which is the usual reaction that people get upon meeting Lil.

"B-but," Mia stammered, looking around her worriedly, "But what about Boris?"

I followed her line of gaze to where Boris was slumped down upon the futon couch, his head cradle in his hands.

Ok, so yeah, I did feel bad for him. I mean, even though I do want him and Lil to break up as fast as humanly possible, to escape pain on his part, he still looks pretty cut up about what was happening. I would have said something if I hadn't noticed the way Tina was acting around him. Ok, yeah, she was telling one of the lamest cover stories in the history of cover stories, that Lil was simply showing Jangbu what the inside of an American coat closet looks like, but you could definitely see that her whole heart was behind her telling him it.

Oh, yeah, I think Boris is going to be just fine.

"Boris'll get over it." With a little help from Tina. I looked away from the two, knowing that I was the only person present seeing what was actually going on, but that was fine. If Mia saw what I was seeing, she'd probably just freak out more.

Not that it matter much because just then Mr G came back.

"I'm home." And Mia jumped about a foot in the air, as she looked at Mr G in horror, "I picked up some ice, too. I figured we might be running out by now…" he stopped there because that was when he open the closet and found my darling little sister tongue wrestling with Jangbu.

I have to say that while he didn't blow his head off at his discovery; Mr G was quick to react to it. He didn't drag Jangbu out of the closet, simply jerked his thump at the pair of them to get out, while Lil was spluttering an even lamer cover story that Tina's, about how she and Jangbu got accidently locked in the closet.

Mr G simply gave her a 'oh please, do I look stupid' look before telling that he thought it was about time to wrap things up.

Which, of course, had everyone grumbling since, besides from what was going on in the closet, they were having a good time at Mia's party. Well, everyone except Mia, who actually looked pleased that her party was over and started moving about to get everyone their coats.

I gave her hand, which at least seemed to earn me a some points back in her books, because she smiled at me (thank god) as I helped her hand back people's coats, while Mr G called Hans, Mia's limo driver to come around and pick everyone up and take them home.

I couldn't help but grin a little as Mr G told Hans over the phone that when he got to mine and Lil's building that he was to make sure that Jangbu didn't get out with us and that Lil went all the way up to our apartment, just case she got any ideas about sneaking back down to meet up with Jangbu somewhere. Wow, clearly this isn't the first time Mr G has experience something like this, because he clearly knows he's stuff.

I managed to get one kiss in before I left with everyone else. I think Mia was too distressed over what had happened at the end of her party with Lil, Jangbu and worry about how Boris was coping with it all, to be thinking about our fight (if what had happened in the closet can be classed as a fight.), because she seemed happy enough to kiss and hug me goodbye.

* * *

><p>The parental unit was somewhat surprised to see us when we got in after Hans had dropped us off, apparently they thought we'd get in sometime after midnight not just before eleven. Neither Lil or I gave any reason as to why that was, simply saying we were tired and were heading for bed.<p>

"I don't suppose it would have killed you to have waited til you got into the privacy of your own home before you decided to make-out with Jangbu." As well as other things. I said to Lil as I waited outside the bathroom for Lil to finish brushing her teeth so that I could go in and do mine.

"Why?"

"Well, besides the fact that you more or less did it in front your long-time" suffering "boyfriend, who is quite upset about this if you didn't happen to notice," how on earth she couldn't, what with the pitiful looks he had sent her way the whole ride home, "you did it at your best friend's house, at her birthday party no less. It was kind of rude."

"Why? It was the game we were playing." She came out of the bathroom, frowning up at me. "You played it too." She reminded me at which I rolled my eyes back at her.

"That's different; I was in that closet with the person who is my girlfriend. You were in the closet with someone you basically picked off the street while your boyfriend remained with the rest of us wondering whether or not this was the end of your relationship."

Lil snorted at this.

"Jangbu is not just 'someone I basically picked off the street', he's a friend."

"Uh huh. Looked more than friendly to me, but that's beside the point, I honestly don't care what you get up to in a closet with another person, as long as you're being safe and you weren't forced into it or whatever. My point is, couldn't you have thought of a better time and place besides Mia's birthday party?"

"We were playing the game; I don't see what the big issue is." Lil snapped at me and I gave up.

If Lil couldn't see what she had done wrong, then she would continue not to see, so telling her over and over again is as effective as talking to a brick wall and expecting it to talk back, so I went to bed.

I thought about calling Mia, just to see how she was and if she was still mad at me, but I thought better on it.

Though I was going to have to figure how I was going to convince her that nothing was going to change with my graduating and going to college in the fall, that my feeling for her would remain the same.

Like my feeling for her are ever going to change. And if they do, it's only because they've grown stronger for her.


	6. Chapter 5

** Author's Note:** Sorry, this is a short chapter. Very short compared to Mia's Birthday Party, but oh well.  
>Anyway, hope you all enjoy. Don't forget to comment.<p>

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><p><strong>Chapter Five<strong>

I was hoping that Sunday would be a quiet day; that I might be able see Mia sometime through it. However, annoyingly, that turned out not to be the case.

Lil left early (Well early for us, since Lil and I aren't exactly what you would call Morning people. She left around nine thirty) to do only hells knows what, possibly something with Jangbu because she had obviously not left early to go and sort things out with Boris, as I soon discovered when he started to ring periodically after ten o'clock that morning.

I was the only one home beside Maya who was simply making our dinner, which she was going to put in the fridge for us to heat up tonight, before she too left.

She left just after two o'clock, when Boris rang for the tenth time.

I was torn between being frustrated and pitying as I picked up the phone, guessing full well who it was calling.

"Hello, Moscovitz residence. Michael speaking." I said once I answered the phone, trying to keep the irritation out of my voice.

'Oh,' the obviously unhappy voice of Boris said down the line. 'Hi Michael. Is Lilly there?' I closed my eyes, cursing, once again, my sister for leaving me in this position. I also cursed our parents as well, for not giving her a bloody mobile phone. If they had, then Boris would be calling it and not the home phone so that I wouldn't be having to deal with him.

"Hey Boris. No she isn't, she's still out."

'Oh,' he said again, 'I suppose you still don't know when she'll be back?' he asked dejectedly, while I fought the desire to roll my eyes. Dammit Lil, I'm going to kill you!

"No, sorry mate, I don't. I don't even know where she is." I said which of course was the worst thing to say since I hadn't said this before, I had been careful not to tell him, in fact, except this time I accidently let it slip out.

'So, you mean she could be with _him_ for all you know?' Boris said sounding frantic.

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Boris…"

'I mean, she could be, couldn't she? But why? I mean, I understand that they're working together to bring justice to busboys everywhere, but-but… I don't understand what I did wrong.' He ended in a sort pitiful whisper and I suddenly felt more badly for him than I had last night. Maybe I should have done something, stepped in or something. I mean, I know Lil can take care of herself and while I do think them breaking up is for the best, overall, I could have still done something other that what I had done. Which was absolutely nothing.

I sighed.

Ok, maybe I understand now why Mia was so upset with me last night for not doing anything. I mean, clearly Boris was really and truly cut up with what Lil has done to him. I mean, come on, what normal person wouldn't be? I mean, if Mia ever did that to me, kiss another guy basically right in front of me, ok besides the fact that I'd beat the guy to a Cream of Wheat, I would be hurt beyond measure if Mia ever did that to me.

So with another sigh, I said, 'Look Boris, you didn't do anything wrong. Lilly was the one who did the wrong thing, ok."

'But why? I must have done something that caused her to run in to Jangbu's arms.' You mean, something beside her hormones kicking into overdrive, I thought but of course didn't say.

"Look Boris, you know how Lil is. She does these sorts of things without thinking how they might affect other people, people close to her. Last night was just another one of those times, she just wasn't thinking of anyone else's feeling besides her own."

I listen as Boris tried to defend Lil against what I had just said before finally giving up with a great, miserable sigh.

'I guess. What should I do?'

"At the moment? Nothing." I replied.

'B-but.'

"I'm serious, Boris. At the moment she thinks she hasn't done anything wrong, so you trying to talk to her, trying to make her understand how much she's hurt you, won't do anything or rather, it'll just end up hurting you more. So for the moment, just leave it. Don't do anything, just wait and see what happens. Trust me, this thing with Jangbu, it won't last. Give her a week; maybe two and she'll be begging you to take her back… or something like that."

I thought I heard him sniff, before he asked in a small voice, 'you think?'

"Yeah, I do. It's just Lil having her ego-inflated, that's all."

There was a slight pause as Boris thought that over.

'Ok,' he replied slowly, 'can you still at least let her know I called?'

"Sure thing, Boris."

'Thanks Michael. Um, can you let Mia know that I'm sorry for how her party turned out?'

"Yeah, I will." I said.

'Ok, well, thanks again Michael. Um, bye.'

"Bye Boris." I said and he hung up.

I sighed heavily as I too hung up the phone.

Yup, I was definitely going to kill Lil the moment she got home.

I emailed Mia, telling her that she should probably stay out of the Lil/Boris break up for her sanity's sake and asking if she wanted to hang out, if she wasn't grounded for what had happened last night, to either go out for dim sum or if she wanted me to come over to hers to help her with her algebra homework.

I was still waiting for a reply when Lil got home around seven that evening, just before Mom and Dad got home.

"Where you been?" I asked as I stuck my head out of my room as she walked for hers.

"What's it to you?" she asked and I rolled my eyes at her.

"Can't I show any sort of brotherly concern towards you at all?"

"No."

"Well, too bad. Where you been?"

She smiled secretively at me and, "you'll just have to wait for tomorrow."

"Why?" I asked cautiously.

"You'll see." She said and skipped the rest of the way to her room.

"Wait, Lil. Boris called…" but her bedroom door slammed before I could finish what I was trying to say.

"I hate it when she does that." I muttered under my breath as I shut my door again and flopped into my computer chair.


	7. Chapter 6

**Author's Note:** Hery Everyone, sorry for the wait with this chapter, but I can promise you it was worth the wait, it's the 'Boris-drops-a-globe-on-his-head' chapter, lol.  
>Enjoy.<p>

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><p><strong>Chapter Six<strong>

Of course, I did find out what she was up to all day Sunday on Monday morning at the breakfast table when Dad choked on his morning coffee as he read the front page of the _New York Times_ before, once he had gotten over his coughing fit, giving a great sigh. Before I could ask what it was that had caused his choking, Dad was handing it to me to read it.

"City-Wide Busboy Strike," I read out-loud before leaning back in my chair and reading the full article, sighing as I read.

"Well, at least they've finally got the story right this time." I said as I handed the _Times_ back to Dad.

He nodded before shaking his head again as he drained his coffee.

"Well, now we know what your sister's been up to, these past couple of days."

"Yup." I said I said as I sipped my own coffee.

Dad left the kitchen after that and I heard him and Mom calling goodbye to Lil, Maya and me. Lil came into the kitchen after they left, a smug smile taking up her whole face, it growing all the more smug when she noticed the _Times_ laying on top of the kitchen table.

"Pretty good, huh." She said to me with her sickeningly smug grin.

I just rolled my eyes back at her.

"You're just jealous." She replied tartly, causing me to snort.

"Of what, Lil?"

"That I'm making a difference in the world."

"And that should cause me to be jealous of you because, Lil?" I asked and she looked back at me with narrowed eyes, trying to figure out whether or not I was making fun of her.

And I left her to figure that out as I got up, placed my coffee mug, bowl and spoon into the dishwasher before heading back for my room until it was time to go down to be picked up by Mia's limo.

Getting into Mia's limo it was obvious Mia was still angry, though who she was angrier with, Lil or me, it was hard to tell. Though it seemed Lil was receiving Mia's full on glare, while I was simply being ignored.

I fought back a sigh, though I was glad that I wasn't the one on the receiving end of Mia's glare. I honestly don't know how Lil could sit so calmly under it, but then she was off in la-la land at the moment.

"Talked to Boris, yet?" Mia growled and I fought back yet another sigh. So much for her taking my advice of simply staying out of Lil's and Boris's issues.

I glanced towards Lars who simply shook his head as if to say 'let the girls be, they'll sort it out themselves without our interference'.

So with a reluctant sigh, I sat back and simply watched.

"You should have been there yesterday, Mia," Lil gushed, completely ignoring Mia's question about Boris, which of course, upset and angered Mia more, "On the march on City Hall, I mean. We had to have been a thousand people strong. It was totally empowering. It brought tears to my eyes, seeing the people come together like that to help further the cause of the working man." Lil finished breathlessly, a wide grin completely taking up her whole face again.

Mia, however, didn't look impressed by what Lil was saying.

"You know what else brought tears to someone's eyes?" Mia asked her pointedly. "You making out in the closet with Jangbu. That brought tears to your boyfriend's eyes. You remember your boyfriend, BORIS, don't you, Lilly?" Mia growled.

Yeah, and do you remember yours, Mia? I couldn't help but think.

Lil however was too busy looking out the window at all the flower that NYC park employees have planted, fully grown, during the middle of the night, muttering, oh so innocently, "Oh look, Spring has sprung."

I swear if looks could kill, Lil would be six feet under what with the look Mia was giving her.

I glanced at Lars who took a drink of his coffee innocently. Should have figured who was giving Mia death glare lessons. I swear by the time Mia comes to her throne, she will be one not fun Crown Princess to mess with. In fact, I'm pretty sure it be something close suicidal if you even tried.

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><p>I somehow managed to keep my glum mood from being detected by Judith, Paul and Felix, though in truth, I doubted that the three of them would have noticed it even if I hadn't been trying to hide it, too busy they were wrapped in their love triangle.<p>

It was actually something of a relief, to not have the three of them bugging me about my relationship with Mia for once. Not that I'm saying I'm not grateful for all that they've done to help me. You know, helping me to actually build up the guts to get together with her and also helping me to be a good boyfriend to her. I am. I seriously am. I don't know, no I know, I would never (ok maybe not _never_, but it would have taken me a hellova lot longer) have gotten together with Mia without all their help.

But that doesn't mean I like spilling my guts to them about every aspects of my relationship with Mia and I'm pretty sure that if I told them that my fight (if it is classed as a fight at all.), our first ever fight, was about PROM, they'd laugh at me for weeks and call me an idiot and probably, actually talk me into going, even though I know for a fact that neither Paul or Felix are any more keen on going to the damn prom than I am.

But anyway, getting back to their love triangle, I honestly don't know how much longer of this the three of them can take. They're not fighting, but their also not doing anything, its just gotten to this awkward silence stage where I'm having to fill it with mundane chatter. And you all know how hugely talkative I am.

_Just seven more days until we graduate_, I thought and felt a whole new wave of relief was through me.

* * *

><p>I thought G&amp;T was going to be a relief, a break in the day of awkward tension that I've had to suffer through for the last four periods.<p>

I was so happy to just be away from my three best friends that I almost forgot that Mia was mad at me, though overall I don't know what about, and that Lil and Boris were on the verge of breaking up.

Not that I forgot for long, I discovered grudging that while I had escaped one awkward, tension filled situation, I had happily walked into another without even knowing that I had.

Dammit, Lil!

The tension that filled the G&T room simply because Boris wasn't playing his damn violin could be cut through with a knife.

I had to put my headphones on as I worked to simply fill the ugly silence of the room with noise. Never before, would I think I would actually miss the sound of Bartok!

The whole feeling of the room was awkward and tense, even those who didn't even know what had happen at Mia's party could pretty much guess, what with Boris not playing his violin and was instead, was sitting in the back corner of the classroom by the old world globe that's apparently been here since the AEHS first opened (I think the story behind it (and it's not an overly interesting story either, just a bit of useless trivia about the school.) was that it was a gift from the then Mayor, that he gave to AEHS because he had enrolled his daughter here, some many years ago.), his head buried against his crossed arms as he hunched over the table.

Ye-ah, he so was _not_ dealing with this whole situation well.

A new wave of irritation and anger towards my sister flooded me.

Why couldn't she just put him out of his misery and break up with him already, instead of simply leaving him hanging as she currently was.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Mia fidgeting from where she was sitting beside my sister, her eyes flickering from Lil to Boris to the door of the classroom then back to Boris. She was gnawing heavily upon her lower lip as if she was facing some kind of indecision.

She was desperate to do something, to help Boris in someway. And even though there are times that the two of them don't get on, for which I blame Lil for more than the two of them, since she has this bizarre habit of pitting the two of them against each other. But even so, Mia still wanted to help him and it was obviously killing her that she couldn't.

I frowned slightly when I noticed her eyes beginning to widen in obvious distress, her mouth opening as if to say something, only for words to fail her, so that her mouth simply formed an 'o' as she stared, transfixed, at the back of the room.

I looked there and almost immediately rolled my eyes when I saw what she was seeing.

So much for taking my advice about doing nothing and to let Lil figure out her mistake by herself, I thought in exasperation.

I didn't bother paying all that much attention to what Boris was spilling out to my sister. I mean, I don't take any pleasure from watching my sister rip into someone and basically leaving them, metaphorically speaking, for dead.

Though, in saying that, I did start paying attention when I once more glanced over to where Mia was and saw that her eyes had gone from distressed and wide to simply looking completely horrified at whatever she was seeing. Even Lil looked somewhat startled.

I looked to where they were looking and felt my mouth drop.

Aw, come on, you have got to be kidding me!

I took off my headphones as I watched in disbelieve as Boris lifted the big, heavy globe above his head, saying in a strangled (not surprising since that thing weighs a ton!), very un-Boris voice, " Lilly. If you don't take me back, I will drop this globe on my head." And he had the damn thing OVER HIS HEAD as he said this.

Another look at Mia and I saw that she was half way out of her chair as if she thought that if she moved fast enough she could stop him from doing just that, while my darling sister simply looked at him with disgust, so not helping, and replied, her disgust at him, filling every word, "Go ahead. See if I care."

Can I kill her now, please?

Though it was obvious that Lil's words had shaken Boris's resolve to drop the damn thing upon himself, like he had finally clicked that, 'hey, dropping a globe upon my head is hardly the best way of winning my girl back, besides it's a completely stupid thing to do!' or something along those lines. Whatever it was, he seemed to have finally clued in that his current handling of the situation hardly the best or brightest way of dealing with it.

Sadly, that didn't save him from what happen next. Just as he was beginning to bring the globe down from above his head, it slipped from between his hands.

I'm pretty sure that it was accidental, if the startled look that crossed Boris's face before the globe conked him on the top of the head was anything to go by.

I guess this would be what my parents would call a self-filling prophecy; saying something that you're going to do, but not really planning or wanting to actually do it, but because you're thinking about doing it so much, you accidently on-purposely do it or make it happen.

Which is exactly what happened to Boris.

The globe hit his head with a sickening hollow thunking noise that made everyone in the classroom cringe in sympathy with Boris as the thing bounced off his head and crashed to the classroom floor.

Fuck!

Boris didn't make a sound from when the globe hit, in fact, I thought he was simply going to faint then and there, which probably would have been kinder, I'm sure, if he simply had. Instead he staggered about, causing people he came near to bolt… away from him.

We might be geniuses, but god we can be a selfish, useless bunch when a situation calls for us to help our fellow human being out.

Thinking that, I rose from my chair, starting towards him, just as Lars rushed out of the classroom, calling for Mrs Hill.

I guess the most surprising reaction that occurred during this, beside Lil's, who sat there, with hands clapped to her cheeks, eyes wide and her whole face pale as snow, looking at Boris in horror, was Mia.

At first, I thought that she had frozen too, like nearly everyone else in the room, but after a moment, she seemed to shake herself, standing up from her chair, pulling off her school sweater as she did so, flashing more stomach then I know she meant to (if it were any other situation then this, I would have simply been sent into a gaga state from that flash of so much of skin.) stalked over to Boris, grabbed his shoulder and ordered him, in calm but very direct voice that meant to be followed to sit down. Which Boris did promptly, sinking down into the nearest desk, shivering.

"Move your hands!" Mia ordered him, in the same strict tone. Again, Boris was prompt to do as she had commanded.

Once Boris's hands were clear from his head, Mia placed her wadded up sweater against the top of his head, stopping the bleeding from where the globe had hit his head.

For a moment I simply stood there, staring at her in disbelief… or maybe that's the wrong word, amazement maybe? Either way, I was proud of her. She had responded to the situation while none of us 'supposed' geniuses had.

As I came down to crouch in front of Boris, I could hear great sobs suddenly erupting from Lil somewhere behind me and I could hear a lot running footsteps, but I forced myself to ignore it all, to focus all my attention upon the trembling, miserable kid before me.

So in the soothing voice that I've learnt of the years from my parents, from when they've received late-night calls from patients who have gone of their medication for whatever reason and are now threatening to do wild, stupid, dangerous things, I said, "It's going to be all right. Boris, you're going to be all right. Just take a deep breath. Good. Now take another one. Deep, even breaths. Good. You're going to be fine. You're going to be just fine."

I kept repeating all this over and over again, until he was doing what I was saying and the school nurse had come to stand by our side, inspecting the wound that Boris had inflicted upon his head by means of a dropping globe, which was spinning lazily around nearby before it finally came to rest upon the country of Ecuador most prominent.

"Come along, young man. Let's go to my office." The school nurse said in a slow, calm tone after she was done inspecting his head, where she hastily had Mia press her sweater back down upon the wound.

_It must be bad_, I thought because even though the school nurse sound calm and confident, her eyes were worried and she was in an obvious hurry to get Boris to her office.

Boris, at first, tried to stand and walk there by himself; only it was quickly proven that he couldn't, since his legs gave out on him the moment he tried to stand, this happening because of either the blow he had sustained to the head or because of the fact that he has hypoglycaemia or possibly both.

So it was decided that Lars and I would help get him to the nurse's office, half-carrying him, half-supporting him as he staggered along, with Mia walking with us, her sweater still placed firmly against his head.

I know I shouldn't be, as her brother for one thing, be pleased to see just how pale Lil was as we pass her by as we left the G&T room. She looked quite ill, like she was sick to her stomach. I know as her brother I shouldn't be happy about that, but personally I couldn't help but think that it served her right.

The school nurse kept Lars, Mia and I sitting outside her office as she filled out an incident report about what had happened.

She called Boris's mother after she had settled Boris on to a bed in the sick bay, saying that while the cut in his head isn't too deep, he'd probably need stitches and possibly a tetanus shot.

I thought Boris was going to faint when he heard that, going somewhat yellow in the face.

When she finally came out to say that we could go, she turned to Mia who had spent the whole time that we were waiting writing in her journal about what had happen.

How do I know? Well it's pretty obvious that she would be writing about that, but truthfully I snuck a look over her shoulder as she was writing and read a couple of paragraphs. I know, I'm a terrible boyfriend, but in my defence, so was Lars! He was sitting on her other side and he was reading her journal just as much as I was.

Anyway, the nurse complimented Mia on her quick acting during the whole Boris incident. That if she hadn't acted as she had, Boris could possibly be a whole lot worse.

I felt a swell of pride bubble threw me as I watch Mia's face grow redder and redder with the continual shower of praise that the school nurse was giving her.

She praised us (Lars and me) too, but really, it was Mia who had reacted the best to what had happen, who had done what needed to be done without any thought at all. She deserved all the praise that she received and more.

"You're the princess, aren't you?" the nurse asked after a bit and Mia's already red face turned even redder as she ducked her head down, so that her hair covered her faced and very demurely replied that yes, she was.

We were allowed to leave after that, only for us to then be stopped by Principal Gupta, who wanted to know our side of what had happened so that she could inform the School Board, only when we finally allowed to leave her office, she seemed to have decided to simply to inform the Board that Boris had had a nervous breakdown because of the pressure he was feeling from his music and exams and stuff like that, instead of the real story of him cracking because my selfish sister went off and made out with a guy right in front of him, basically, and he wasn't dealing with her breaking up with him because of it.

* * *

><p>"Tell the truth. Did Boris seriously lose it and try and to kill himself by stabbing himself with a protractor?" Felix asked as he and Paul caught up to me during our gym period (Paul moved into our gym period this term).<p>

"No." I said as I absently minded bounced a basket ball from one hand to the other.

"Told you." Paul said to Felix, who simply scowled back at him before sighing.

I fought back my own sigh as I quickly said.

"No, he seriously lost it and tried to kill himself via dropping a world globe on to his head."

They both looked at me in disbelief.

"A globe?" Paul said slowly to make sure he had heard me right.

"Well, if you're going to kill yourself, you might as well be original about it." Felix said as if that explained everything.

Paul rolled his eyes at him and I felt myself squirm in discomfort.

There was going to be a fight, and soon. I just prayed that it didn't come to blows, because not only will Felix wipe the floor with Paul, he'll rotor-repolish it as well.

I sighed; this was going to be a long week.

* * *

><p>My day seriously didn't improve after that.<p>

Mia wasn't talking to me, for whatever reason, something that came quite apparent after my sending her something like four emails tonight and receiving no reply for any of them.

My two best friends are fighting over my third best friend who has returned to simply sticking her head in the sand and pretending that none of what is going is actually going on. She's ignoring all three of us, her head constantly buried in a book.

And my sister is continuing to be a psychotic, little freak, who is proceeding to act like what happen to Boris today was nothing more than a big joke and had absolutely nothing to do with her.

Ye, Gods, Graduation and Summer Break can not come quick enough!

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Just a heads up, I'm almost finished with book five, simply have to write up Friday and the Bum Bum Bah! Prom (Ok, and Michael's graduation.) and then I'm done.


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

I thought that Tuesday, things would be easier.

That the air might be clearer or something like that. I don't know. But anyway, I was wrong, as per usual.

Though there was a bright side to the day, that bright side becoming quite apparent when Mia came and picked me up for School. Only me since Lil took the subway to school on account that she and Mia are fighting. Or rather, as Mia put it, they're simply not speaking to each other at this current moment in time due to their differing views on certain subjects. She, Mia that is, seems to be dealing with the non-speaking thing with Lil a lot better than previous times that they've not been on speaking terms. If anything I'd say it was like something of a weight was lifted off her shoulders when she saw it was only me getting into the limo this morning.

She smiled widely at me as I got in, looking far happier than I think I've seen her in… awhile or maybe she simply looked calmer because she didn't have to be angry at Lil at the moment. But did this mean she wasn't angry at me anymore? She certainly acted as if she wasn't, mad at me that is, if the enthusiastic good morning kiss that she gave me was anything to go on.

However, over the course of the day I would say her good mood definitely deteriorated. Not that I saw her much, what with having to my Maths Final (which was easy) during the first half of the day. But I did finish it during hers and mine lunch hour and when I caught up with then, her good mood of this morning was almost completely gone.

She seemed happy enough to see me though, so I figured that whatever had caused her good mood to disappear probably had nothing to do with me… probably.

Anyway, because I had no finals that afternoon and had nothing better to do, I went to all my afternoon classes, which mostly involved me sitting in my usual sit while I and whatever teacher I currently had, sat back and worked on our computers.

So, in a way, the day wasn't too terrible, just that nearly everyone I'm associated with is currently not talking to someone; Mia and Lil, Boris and Lil, Felix and Paul, Judith, Felix and Paul and I'm just stuck in the middle of it all, not having a clue what the hell I should do about what is happening with all of them and praying to all the high powers out that all of them sort out their differences so that things can simply return back to normal again… and soon.

If only I were so lucky.

I was walking to my Gym class (which, like any sane person, I was dreading) when Tina came rushing up to me, breathing heavily from apparently running all over school trying to find me.

"Hey Tina, what's up?" I said, nodding Hi to Wahim, since he really isn't a big talker, only to Lars does he say more than a couple of words to.

It took Tina a few moments for her to gain enough air in her lungs to speak.

"Do you- do you know about Mia running out of French?" she finally wheezed out. Obviously my shocked expression was her answer that no, I hadn't heard about Mia running out of French, since she continued on, "Well, she did. I don't know why," when my face was obviously screaming out 'WHY', "she just got a call on her mobile and ran out." She took another few deep breaths, before giving me a weak, shy smile, "I just thought you should know."

I smiled back at her, even though inside I was freaking out.

It had to be about Helen. The phone call, I mean. Helen and the baby. What else would have Mia running out of her French Class? Well, besides Clarisse maybe, but I doubt that her grandmother is involved this time.

No, I'm pretty sure this has something to do with Helen and the baby.

"Thanks Tina. Thanks for letting me know." She nodded and gave me another shy smile, before she turned around and headed for her class.

Tina was, and I've always thought this, a very good friend for Mia. Yes, she was a bit of a scatterbrains and a big romantic daydreamer, but she was kind and friendly and she never makes Mia feel bad about herself, unlike my wonderful sister who makes Mia feel like crap on all days that end with 'y'.

I decided to simply ditch Gym and instead snuck off to one of the empty computer labs and tried calling the loft on my mobile (this took awhile, since yet again, I had forgotten my password for it. I really need a new one or maybe I shouldn't keep my mobile off for something like three months at a time), only to receive no answer.

I didn't even really think about it when I dialled the next number that came to me. I mean, really I should have. Thought about, that is. But in truth I wasn't thinking about the social disapproval of my calling him just at that very moment, too worried I was about Mia.

And besides, it wasn't like he minded overly much. Surprised by my calling him maybe, but not bothered.

"Hello." He said in his thick French accent as he answered his phone after the second ring. He sounded surprised that he was being called, and by a number he didn't know.

Not many have his private mobile number and the only reason that I do have it is because I happen to be dating his daughter, so that if anything should go wrong, I can contact him or something like that. I don't know, he didn't really go into details about it when he gave it to me on my second meeting with him; only telling me that if there was ever a need, here was he's number.

I'm not overly sure what he meant by that, but this counts as a need, right? Finding out if his daughter or rather the mother of his daughter was ok, right?

I took a deep breath, suddenly feeling nervous, but I refused to allow myself to imitate simply because he happens to be a Crown Prince (oh, and because he happens to be my girlfriend's dad). I mean, besides that, he's a perfectly nice guy and we get on quite well.

"Hello, this is Michael Moscovitz…"

'Michael.' He said and he actually sounded genuinely pleased. 'How may I help you?'

"Um, I was just wondering, um…" my mind had gone blank.

'If Helen is ok?' He guessed, sounding both amused and pleased, though I have no idea why. Anyway, so it was about Helen, thought as much.

"Yeah, that. Mia rushed out of class and I was worried. Is she alright? The baby?"

'They're both fine I believe,' he reassured me before I could work myself up anymore than I already had, 'Helen simply got dehydrated and fainted at the Grand Union.' I gagged at how calm he sounded.

"But she's ok now, right? And the baby?"

'Yes, they are. In fact, I believe Helen is already bossing the nurses of ER around.' He sounded amused and possibly a little wistful, but I chose to ignore that. I knew from Mia that her Dad had some unresolved feeling when it came to her Mom.

'They're at St Vincent's Hospital.' Philippe said quite unexpectedly. 'I'm sure Mia would appreciate seeing you. According to Lars she is quite beside herself with worry and I'm pretty sure, seeing you, would calm her down a great deal.' I felt my ears starting to turn a little red at that.

"Um, thank you sir. I'll head over there as soon as school is let out. Um, thanks again."

'You are very welcome.' He replied and with that and a quick goodbye, we hung up.

I had to shake myself to get over the weirdness of that phone call, only then dawning on me just how weird it was. Me calling her Dad, her Dad who happens to be a Crown Prince!

How many guys do you know call up the girlfriend's dad, willingly? Especially when said girlfriend's dad happens to be a Princes? None of the guys that I know would. And I had done it without even thinking!

Ok-ay… what does that say about me?

* * *

><p>I headed over to St Vincent's Hospital the moment school let out.<p>

I thought that I might get a hard time, you know getting into ER since I didn't have any limbs hanging out their sockets and I wasn't bleeding from a gunshot wound or anything like that, but they let me right on in. Possibly because I might have thrown in the fact that I happen to be dating the Princess of Genovia, whose mother was currently in ER, but you never know, they might like having un-ill people wondering around their ER for no readily apparent reasons… Ye-ah.

Anyway, I found Mia and Lars easily enough; they were in the ER waiting room, both reading. Well, when I say both, I should say Lars was staring at a magazine because he couldn't force himself to go through watching the chick-flick currently playing on the ER waiting room TV and Mia was writing in her journal (what a surprise). I swear that she loves that thing more than she loves me. Can you be jealous of an inanimate object? Because if you can, then I'm completely screwed. I mean, it's bad enough competing with her cat but her journal too!

Lars saw me first, but probably only because an ambulance rolled in with someone who had actually pulled a limb out of its socket and he had looked up to see what was happening and the cause for all the screaming and had spotted me then.

Mia looked up a moment later, saw me and grinned.

"Hey." I said as I walked over to them.

"Hi. What are you doing here?" Mia asked, not sounding angry that I was there, simply surprised that I was.

"Tina told me that you rushed out of French for some reason, and since I couldn't get an answer from the loft, I rang your Dad and he told me what had happen." Mia eyebrows rose to her hairline.

"You rang my Dad?"

"Uh huh."

"Ok-ay." She said after a moment of simply digesting that fact. I know, I was still trying to digest it too.

"Why didn't you just call me?" she asked after a moment, after I had sat down in the chair next to her.

I gave her a look and her face went bright red.

"Because you don't know my number." she answered her own question slowly.

I shook my head at her comically.

"But you never have your mobile on anyway." She shot back at me as I started to laugh at her.

"Because no one interesting ever calls me." Actually no one calls me, at all. If people want to talk to me, they do so over IM. Like Mia, for example. Most of our conversations, when we're not at school or hanging out, are over IM.

"So, in other words, you're saying that if there was a chance that you were going to get a call from someone you find personally interesting say, Sarah Michelle Geller, you would have your phone on all the time?" Mia asked, somewhat dryly.

"Definitely." I said with a grin that caused her to roll her eyes back at me.

"Give me your phone?" she ordered, making a 'give me' motion with one of her hands as she used her other to scrounged through her school bag for something.

"Are you actually going to give Sarah Michelle Geller phone number?" I asked teasingly, though I admit, I was also a tad hopeful. Yes, I do love Mia more than anything else in the world but… this was Sarah Michelle Geller! Buffy!

"No. Mine." She replied as she pulled her new phone out of her school bag.

I pulled my face into a mock pout.

"Aw well, I guess I'll just have to force myself to settle for you in the meantime." She elbowed me in the gut, before once more making 'give me' motions.

So with a mock sigh of reluctance, I handed over my phone to her.

"Do you even remember your phone number?" I asked her teasingly after a moment as she simply sat there, holding both our phones in her hands.

"Of course I do." I grinned at her. "Shut up." I laughed.

"Mean."

"Yes, yes, I'm very mean." I agreed and Mia stuck her tongue out at me, before typing in her phone number into my phone's address book.

"Not that it'll do much good." She said once she had handed my phone back.

"Hmmm, why?"

"Because my mom and Mr G are the only ones allowed to call my mobile. You know, to contact me when the baby is being born."

"Yeah, but what happens after the baby is born?" I asked, "Are you still going to be under those rules?"

"Um, I don't know."

"I doubt it," I said as I plucked her phone from her hand, and went into her address book, not surprised at all to see that she only had three numbers listed in it, Mr G's and Helen's mobiles as well as the lofts number.

I quickly typed in mine before handing it back to her as I added. "But it's not like it'll be a problem, since we mostly IM each other anyway."

"Because you never have your mobile turned on."

"You didn't even have my number." I replied in exasperation.

"I do or rather, I did. Lilly gave it to me." She said when I gave her a questioning look. "I tried calling it a couple of times but you never answered (because you never have it on). Lilly thought that it was hilarious."

"When did you…" I started to ask before remembering that I had received several calls during one of my phones being off stints and I hadn't known the number, so hadn't bothered calling it back, thinking that it was just some company trying to sell me something. "That was you?"

"Uh huh."

"Wait, why weren't you using you home number?" I asked as I went scrolling through my missed calls list, which considering how often I have my phone turned off, there isn't an overly huge list to go through, because no one ever calls me on my mobile, so I found the group of calls, from same unknown number, quite easily.

"Because every time I called you, I was over at Tina's. They kept daring me to do it, for some reason." She added with a shrug when I gave her another questioning look.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked.

She gave another shrug.

"Didn't see much point to. I mean, I didn't have a mobile then, I knew more or less that you didn't use yours very often, granted I didn't think you actually turned it off for weeks on end, and I can talk to you easily enough on IM or at school and if I ever want to call you I can always call your home phone, so I just didn't see much point bring it up when it wasn't really an issue to begin with. And even now," she said starting to grin, "I can still see us communicating more by IM then by using our mobiles."

I did too. But that didn't mean I didn't want her mobile number, or her not to have mine.

We settled down into comfortable silence, either watching CNN of the occasional ambulance that rolled in, the three of us making a game of trying to guess what had happen to person who was being brought in (is sad that Lars won most rounds? Or just worrying?).

During most of the time that we were waiting, Mia and I played Thumb Wars. Don't ask me why or how that started, only that we did it for something like two hours.

It didn't get boring or anything due to fact that though I have bigger hands than her, her thumb is faster and is surprisingly strong once she has mine trapped underneath hers.

Anyway, it ended up becoming a draw between us, as we both won as many rounds as each other.

I was watching another ambulance bring in another patient, cringing inwardly when I saw what they were doing to him, when Mia suddenly prodded me with her free hand, her other was still trapped in terrific battle of thumb wars.

"Hmm?"

"Come on. Doesn't that look fun?" she said and I gave her a 'what' look, thinking that clearly the whole thing that had happen with Boris yesterday has skewed her brain somewhat.

"Getting your chest cracked open with a rib spreader in the middle of Seventh Avenue? Not really?" I said slowly, contemplating, for a moment, and I might as well add, not for the first time, my girlfriend's sanity.

She gave me a very dry look.

"No," she said somewhat huffily, though I did notice her cringe when she happened to look in the poor guy's direction, "On the TV. You know, Prom."

I heard Lars give a snort of amusement from Mia's other side, causing me to glare at him over Mia's head while he gave me a 'rather you then me' look before sitting back and watching the doctors work on the guy with his chest cracked open.

I fought back a sigh and looked up at the TV screen, watching for a moment, at all the dressed up, dancing kids displayed on it and said a quick 'no'.

I hoped, even though I knew it wouldn't be, that that would be the end of it, but of course it wasn't.

"Yeah, but seriously. Think about it." I have and it's still no, "it might be cool. "It might be not. Actually I'm sure it is. Not cool, that is. "You know. To go and make fun of." Which is what she and I had done at the previous two dances that we had gone to together-ish. Well we hadn't exactly gone together, but we had certainly left them together. "And you don't have to wear a tux, you know. You could just wear a suit." Which is just as bad as a tux! "Or not even a suit." She added quickly, obviously seeing the face that I had pulled at the word 'suit'. "You could wear jeans and one of those T-shirts that _look_ like a tux." This time I actually heard Lars chuckled, while I stared at Mia, once again, questioning her sanity.

"You know what would be even more fun?" I asked, and I saw her fighting back a sigh, "_Bowling_."

This time, Mia didn't bother fighting back a sigh as she rolled her eyes in exasperation at me.

"But, Michael," she started and I started to panic some, because she was using that voice, the voice that made me want to do anything that she wanted, which is bad because I might find myself actually agreeing to go to prom with her. "Seriously. We could go bowling any old night. And frequently do. Wouldn't it be more fun, just once, to get all dressed up and go dancing?"

I sighed heavily.

Dancing, of course, that would be the reason why she would want to go to the stupid prom.

"You want to go dancing?" I asked and she nodded, "we could go dancing." Seriously, if that was the only reason why she wanted to go to prom, because she simply wanted to go dancing, then she could have just told me and I would have taken her dancing before this and I wouldn't be in this situation with her about the damn prom. "We could go to the Rainbow Room if you want. My parents go there on their anniversary and stuff. It suppose to be really nice." I could see her starting to hesitate as if her resolve about prom was starting to falter some. YES! "there's live music," I continued quickly, hoping that I could convince her out of wanting to go to the prom once and for all, "really great old time jazz, and - "

"Yeah," she started slowly, interrupting me, though I could see that her resolve about prom wasn't as strong as it was before. "I know. I'm sure the Rainbow Room is very nice." I could see a flicker of hopefulness in her eyes. "But I mean, wouldn't it be nice to go dancing some place with PEOPLE OUR OWN AGE?"

I fought back a groan, before sighing. Why was I getting this feeling that I was somehow going to be going to my prom, whether I liked it or not.

"Like from AEHS?"I asked slowly and watched her nod. "I guess so." Oh god, resolve failing, "I mean, if like Trevor and Felix and Paul were going to been there…" which was becoming less and less likely what with how things had been between them. "But you know, they wouldn't be caught dead at something as lame as the prom."

I thought that she might fight me some more over this, but I could see in her eyes that she was getting as tired as I was about this whole prom thing.

"So," I said after a few more moments of silence. Mia looked back around at me, as I rubbed my thumb lightly against the hand that I was still holding, "do you want to go to the Rainbow Room sometime." She looked at me in surprise.

"Um?"

"I only think prom is lame," I said softly, "dancing with you is not." I watched her cheeks turn a rosy red colour at that as she nodded, smiling.

"Ok."

"Cool." I squeezed her hand tightly in mine. Then, just to make sure she wasn't still a little mad at me, I kissed her gently, because in a way, I admit, I did feel a little bad, you know, about the whole prom thing. I know how much she did want to go, how much she does love to dance, and I was beginning to feel bad about the whole refusal to take her to the prom.

"I promise I'll make it up to you, ok." I mumbled when we pulled apart for air. I felt her nod slowly and I kissed her again.

Her mom and Mr G came and found us a short time after that.

"Hi there Michael." Mr G greeted me as they came over to where we were sitting.

"Hi." I said before turning to Helen, "how are you feeling?" I asked her and she smiled.

"Oh, I feel fine." She replied waving her hand in front of her, as if her fainting in Grand Union was no big deal at all.

I could see Mr G rolling his eyes at that.

"Right and let's keep you that way." He said as he put an arm around her waist and sort half steered towards the exit.

"Mia," Helen said over her shoulder as all walked out of St Vincent's, "how bout you and Michael go and do something together for a couple of hours."

"Just make sure your home by at least ten. School night, remember" Mr G added with an apologetic grin before he and Helen headed off to hail a taxi.

"What do you want to do?" I asked and Mia thought for a moment.

"Pizza?" I grinned

"Sounds great."

I held her hand as we walked to Ray's Pizzeria, talking about everything and anything, with Lars occasionally throwing in his two cents.

He doesn't always join our conversations, but sometimes he does, telling us about all things he did before he entered the body guard business. And even some of the stuff he has done during his time as a bodyguard and from what I can gather from what he's told us, it's pretty obvious that out of all the people he has acted as a bodyguard for, Mia and her dad are his favourite.

He has a great respect for Mia's dad and with Mia; he sort of treats her like a favourite niece or a younger sister. He's still very professional, but you can defiantly tell he is fond of Mia.

Anyway, we had a good time, eating pizza and simply hanging out. It had been a while since our last date, not that we really plan dates, they sort of just happen most of the time, like this one but it had been a while since we had gone out, just the two of us (well three of us, because of Lars, but he was barely noticeable when he's sitting off watching a game on the big screen at Ray's, cheering along with most of the other patrons).

We did some homework while we were there at Ray's. Or rather, Mia did her Algebra homework and I helped her with it.

She is getting better with it, but it's obvious that Maths really isn't her strong point, just like English isn't mine.

"I hate it." She grumbled as I showed her what she had done wrong in the equation I had set for her ten minutes earlier.

"It's just a silly mistake; you'd still get marks for your working if this were a test." I replied gently, Mia simply pulled a face.

"Still." She said, sounding frustrated.

I kissed her temple fondly.

"Come on, let's get you home." I said even though it wasn't even eight o'clock yet, but Mia had had a stressful day and she looked tired enough to seemly fall asleep where we were in the booth.

Lars and I got her home safe and sound with Mia giving me a warm kiss before heading into her building.

"Looks like you've managed to talk your way out of going to the prom." Lars said as we headed in the direction of my apartment building.

I shrugged.

"I guess." But then I caught a look at his face, the look that he wore on it was one of secret amusement, like he knew something that I didn't.

"What?" I asked suspiciously.

"Nothing."

"Come on, tell. What?"

He simply smiled knowingly at me and I spent the rest of the walk to my apartment building trying to get him to spill whatever secret suspicious that he had.

"You're not going to tell me are you?" I finally grumbled once we had reached my building.

"Nope."

"Thanks a lot." I said rolling my eyes at him, causing him to chuckle.

"Good night Michael. The Princess and I will see you in the morning."

"Yeah, see you then." I said as I gave him a goodbye wave and headed into my building.

Lil was there when I got in, along with Jangbu, planning their next stage of attack, but I pretty much ignored them, heading straight for my room as soon as I got myself a drink of water from kitchen.

I did a bit of research on the dangers of dehydration for pregnant women, which I then printed off to give to Mia tomorrow for her to then give to her mom.


	9. Chapter 8

**Author's Note:**Hey Everyone. Here's chapter 8. It's actually basically a filler chapter, there is some swearing, a little more than usual, but nothing too horrible, but just a heads up about it anyways.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Eight<strong>

I didn't get to go into school with Mia today due to the fact that my Chemistry final started freakishly early and if I took Mia's limo to school at the usual time of 7:45 I'd actually be late for it, so instead I grudgingly took the subway. Only be told, when I got to school, that the Chem final starting time had been pushed back to the time that all the rest of the finals were starting from, meaning I had gotten up early for nothing!

It was sort of boring, sitting around waiting for the rest of the school to arrive.

Normally I wouldn't mind it, since I'd just sit with Felix, Paul and Jude and talk with them until Mia arrived, but since none of them are actually talking to each other that can't be the case. And if I try to sit with one of them, the other two might take it as me picking sides and get all pissed off at me too.

I just can't win.

So instead, I just hung around in one of the empty computer labs, finding out more information for Mia to give to her mom.

I was in there longer then I thought (or wanted to be), because the first bell for class rang while I was still in there. Dammit.

And even though I knew I was going to make myself late for my Chem final, I headed for Mia's Algebra classroom anyway.

The first thing I noticed when I got there was the fact that Mia looked like she had just had a fight with Lana or at least Lana had been mean towards her. Neither of which are a particularly good idea, given the times that Lana has made Mia angry or at least upset, Mia's response has been either to stab her with a Nutty Royale ice cream or smash her mobile into tiny, little pieces.

Both times, of course, Mia was the one who got into trouble and Lana got off scot-free, but at least these events had made Lana steer clear of Mia for a couple of weeks.

But I didn't think that this time was like those times.

Mia looked more upset then angry, but still I didn't want her to land herself in detention simply because she couldn't control her temper, even when her temper is directed at Lana and the fact that Lana deserves whatever Mia might do to her.

So before anything like Mia stabbing her with her pencil or crushing her phone could happen, I intervened.

I walked over to where she was sitting behind Weinberger (honestly Mr G, seriously? I mean, yeah I get that seat placement is suppose to last for the whole year, but come on, with these two, I'm sure you could have made an exception to the rule and just move them to opposite sides of the classroom when you first saw how badly they react to one another, like any other sane teacher would have.).

She looked up at me with a grin, clearly completely forgetting about whatever Weinberger had upset her about.

"Hey." She greeted me, then frowned, "Haven't you got a final on, like now?" she asked, sounding worried that I might be making myself late for it simply because I was visiting her.

"Hey. And nah, it's a bit later; they decided to change the times on us without actually telling us that they had."

She looked as annoyed as I felt about the whole thing.

"Anyway," I said changing the subject and handing her the bunch of paper I had printed out off the Internet about the dangers of dehydration in pregnant women, "to give to your mom." I added when she looked momentarily confused.

"Oh. Cool, thanks." She looked from the stack of papers up at me and smiled.

I smiled back before giving her a quick kiss on her cheek, yeah, yeah, in front of everyone in her Algebra class.

"See ya, Mr G." I said as I gave him a wave as I left his classroom.

"Bye Michael." He's given up trying to tell me with his eyes that I'm not supposed to be doing what I'm doing, which is visiting his step-daughter during class time. But since I don't stay long and I'm not really disturbing anyone else while I am popping in to visit Mia, he's more or less has accepted my coming and goings.

The Chem final was fairly easy, simply regurgitating everything that we've heard in class this year. I was out of room that we were taking the final in within two hours of it three and half hour length. I tried hard to ignore the death glare that Jude sent me as I left the room.

* * *

><p>I spent lunch with Mia, managing to talk her into eating somewhere else instead of with her friends in the caff, so instead we headed out into one of the AEHS courtyards, to one of the bench tables that they had set out there, but were so rarely ever used.<p>

There were a few kids out here, but none of them paid us (or Lars, though he got a more than quick look over by a couple of girls sitting off to one side of the yard.) any mind as went and sat at the furthest bench in the yard.

"How was your final?" Mia asked as we sat down on top of the table and started eating our lunches.

I shrugged.

"Usual."

"You just whizzed through it, didn't you?" Mia said, giving me a look that almost rival one of Jude's unimpressed looks.

I felt my ears grow warm.

"I just knew the stuff." I said, feeling embarrassed.

"Some people have all the luck." She grumbled, sounding somewhat mournfully.

I elbowed her playfully.

"Yeah, but I couldn't write a short story for my English final. Instead I had to write something about how the internet affect today's urban youth, rotting our brains out and so on."

"You would have still got marks for it."

"Oh, I did, but I got marked down because it wasn't a short story."

Mia pulled a face at that before asking how things were going with SkinnerBx, asking if things between Paul and Felix had been solved yet.

I shook my head and said nope.

She looked worried at that.

"It'll be fine; they'll figure it out in the end." I reassured her quickly.

"You don't really believe that, though, do you?" she said with raised eyebrows.

I gave her a dry look.

"Aren't I supposed to be the pessimistic one?" I teased her and she grinned.

"Maybe Grandmere attitude is finally getting to me." She replied and I stared at her in horror as

I pulled her into my arms.

"God, I hope not." I mumbled into her hair as I hugged her closer to me. The thought of Mia loosing her warmth and kindness and becoming as cold-heated and stone-faced as her grandmother was a terrifying, horrible thought and something that I prayed would never happened.

She giggled at my reaction.

"As if." She said as she kissed me lightly on the cheek.

"Good." I said, releasing her slightly from my death grip on her, but still keeping one arm around her waist, holding her close to me, as we finished eating our lunch.

* * *

><p>So much for having a quiet afternoon, simply spending it with Mia.<p>

G&T, I had hoped, would be quiet and uneventful, which it had looked that way, since Lil hadn't made an appearance for it, but no such luck.

It seemed that as soon as Mia and I had sat down, we were suddenly being ushered into the teacher's lounge across the hall to see something on the TV in there.

There's a strike. The hotel-workers union has apparently joined the busboys in their strike and the restaurant union is also expected to follow suit shortly. Meaning that basically that no one is working in the restaurants or the hotels of New York City.

Beside me, I could hear Mia muttering something about the financial loss of tourism and conventions because of this strike could well be in the billions. She also muttered something about how one little hairless dog could cause so much damage.

Anyway, I was drawn away from Mia's muttering when I saw something that had my mouth drop while thinking BUSTED!

Because there, on New York One, was my sister. And I might add that this is a live broadcast, so I guess I now know why she isn't in G&T right at this very moment. It's because she standing off to the left of the podium where the heads of the hotel and restaurant unions are standing, holding up this huge sign that read LIVING WAGES FOR LIVING BEINGS, with Jangbu by her side.

Oh yeah, she is so completely busted! I mean, she knows that Mom and Dad watch New York One and that they'll probably see her, but has she made any effort to hide? No, none whatsoever.

And not only is she most likely busted by Mom and Dad, she's so completely busted here at school too. She has unexcused absence for the day. Gupta is so going to be ringing home tonight because of this.

And I was going to get an earful about this from Mom and Dad too. Damn!

I shook my head in disgust.

Look, I'm fully on the side of the busboys. Seriously I am, they SHOULD be paid a living wage. I'm just not on side with Lilly's real reason of being there or why she's putting so much effort in to this.

I got even more peeved with her when the reporter started speaking to her and her replying with stuff like she has always been interested in the welfare of busboys (which is crap, she barely paid them any heed until attention until a couple of days ago) and that her heart has always gone out to the plight of immigrants coming to our country in search of a new start.

I snorted.

"Yeah, I'm sure." I started and turned to Mia, "you know that her interests in the welfare of busboys has more to do with her interest in Jangbu than the plight of the immigrants of this country."

Mia looked mildly amused for a moment before looking sad, as her eyes glanced back towards the TV, or rather who was sitting beside the TV.

When I saw who it was, I groaned.

_Nicely done, Moscovitz_, I silently chided myself because despite his apparent attention being complete on the TV, I was (and Mia was too) pretty sure that he had heard me.

Fantastic, I thought as I watched Boris, with his heavily bandaged head, kept lifting his hand to the TV and tracing out Lil features every time she appeared on the screen.

I rolled my eyes at this, more because Lil didn't deserve his continued devotion towards her, then his actions.

God, why can't he just see already that Tina is gaga about him already? They're way more suited for each other than he and Lil ever were.

* * *

><p>I was sort of hoping that my day would end without any dramas. You know, there were weeks, months even when I could just go through a day knowing exactly how it was going to turn out. Nowadays, I have a hard enough time predicting what's going to happen before lunch.<p>

So when I went into the changing rooms for Gym, even though I wasn't expecting what I did find there, I, at least, knew to expect something.

The yelling was the first give away.

The second give away was the nonsense that was being spewed out by one of the yellers.

Oh, damn.

I sped up. That was pothead nonsense. Well it'd probably be more correct in saying that it was Felix's pothead nonsense yelling that he makes only when he's high… very high. I don't think I've ever heard him so high during school hours.

"Are you insane?" I heard Paul bellow when I came to the boy's change room doors.

"Says you, who only knows how it is."

"WHAT?"

I bolted into the change room, finding Felix and Paul having a face off, of sorts. And I take it back about Felix being high; he was drunk as well… Fantastic.

"Paul." I said and they both looked around at me, as well as all the other guys who were watching the scene, obviously waiting for fists to break out.

"Just leave, ok." I said as I took some cautious steps towards Felix, who was glaring at me somewhat lopsidedly.

I fought the desire to roll my eyes at him.

"What?"

"Just leave. If fist break out, you know whose going to win, even in his drunken, high state."

"HA! See, he knows how great I am." Felix bellowed loudly, swaying dangerously where he stood.

"Felix, SHUT UP!" I snapped at him over his bellows.

Oddly enough, he actually listened to me, though for some strange reason he always does whenever he's in one of these states. Though it's been awhile since the last time he allowed himself to get this bad. I was going to kill the person who set him off (well, maybe not if it was Paul or Jude, but anyone else, they are so dead.) and/or whoever gave him the drugs and alcohol as well.

"Look, everyone just leave, NOW!" I added when I saw that Richter and his gang weren't going to both easily.

"Yeah, whatever. C'mon, let's go." Richter said unexpectedly, suddenly looking bored as he headed out of the change room with his cronies on his tail.

Paul hesitated as the last of the guys in our class left the changing room, watching as I walked up to Felix, shoving down upon his shoulders hard so that he'd sit down on one of the changing benches. I gave him a hard thump over the back of the head for being such an idiot while I was at it.

"Are you sure you'll be ok with…" he trailed off as Mr Wheeton came charging into the change room. He stopped short when he saw what a mess Felix was, before rolling his eyes.

"Moscovitz," he started and I sighed, waiting for him to start yelling at me, because somehow, this would be all my fault in his eyes, "Take care of him and try not to let anyone see him like this, ok." He sounded completely exasperated, looking even more so, when he saw that both Paul and my mouths were hanging open at him.

"What? You think I want this," he jerked his thumb at Felix, "on my record, in the last weeks that I'm stuck with you lot? I mean it, Moscovitz, if you make sure he doesn't get seen by any of the staff and the students here, and I'll give you a passing grade for this class, forgetting to mention all the times that I caught you reading during class when I'm writing up your final report for this class. And I'll even write you a special recommendation or whatever they call it these days. Deal?"

"OK." because seriously, whose going to turn that down? He must seriously be desperate to keep this whole Felix thing quiet and away from the oversensitive ears of other teachers of the school. I wonder why. If Felix wasn't so off his rocket right now, he'd probably ferret out the reason for this sudden need for secrecy and then use against Wheeton as blackmail.

"Good, glad we could come this understanding. You," he jerked is thumb at Paul, "get your skinny ass out there."

Paul shot me an apologetic look, which you know for a guy who had been moments away from being beaten to a pulp by one of his best friends; he didn't look as shaken up as you would think he would be.

I sighed heavily as they both left, turning my attention to Felix who had been strangely silent up until now.

"I'm moron." He informed me with a slur.

"Uh huh. What else is new?" I asked as I sat down beside him.

"What happened?" I asked after a moment. "Felix, seriously, what happened? I haven't seen you this bad since you were trying to prove to your step-brother that you were just as bad-ass as him and that was three years ago? Please tell me that you two aren't at it again, are you?"

"Kinda…"

"What? But I thought you guys, were you know, getting along. Well, the version of getting along that you two live by."

He shrugged, before smacking his head against the tiled, changing room wall behind him.

"Come on. Let's go and get some Pizza in you or something." I sighed as I grabbed his arm and started pulling him to his feet. He gave me a confused look.

"But what about Princess?" he slurred out in confusion.

"Huh?"

"The Princess. Your princess. Won't she be expecting you or something?" he slurred.

I admit I am slightly disturbed by how well I can understand his drunken, high speech. I really have been friends with him way too long.

"Mia?" I asked and he nodded his head enthusiastically, "she'll be fine. She has a princess lesson today, so I can take care of you without worrying her, ok." He didn't look overly pleased by that before sighing, muttering something that sounded like moron, though if he was calling me a moron or himself, it was hard to tell.

I was glad I didn't need to grab anything major from my locker and that I had my school bag with me (as well as Felix's, I managed to grab it before we left the change room) because I didn't bother taking him anywhere but straight back to mine (I know, I know, but I don't have a key to his. Ok, yeah I do know that he does, have a key to his house I mean, but you've never met his Dad, who is in the Navy and wants Felix to follow in his footsteps too (not bloody likely, which I think the Admiral has finally realise and is now giving Felix an even harder time about it) and his step-mom who is the Admiral's trophy wife and her lovely boys (can you hear the sarcasm?). Seriously taking him back to mine was the best thing I could possibly do for him), where I ordered Pizza (and paid with his money. Hey, the guy seriously owes me big for this!).

Once we got the pizza and some water into him, he started settling down. Clearly he hadn't taken as much as I thought he had (or his resilience for the amount of whatever he took is higher than I originally thought… yeah, not so good and I'm praying that that isn't the case) because he settled down surprisingly quickly and was almost back to his usual self after about six hours of my getting him to my house.

I thank the high heavens that this was the night that everyone, besides Maya, who took one look at Felix when we came through the front door and simply shook her head, leaving us to it, were out tonight.

My parents are pretty good about a lot of things, seriously they are. I mean, I know they'd kill both Lil and I if we ever did drugs and/or became alcoholics, but if it's someone else, they're surprisingly good about it. But that's not why I'm worried about them finding out that Felix is here, I'm more worried that they'll ring up Felix's Dad to tell him that Felix is here.

And even though I know they wouldn't tell the Admiral that Felix was here drunk and high, they'd still probably give the Admiral an earful for allowing Felix to get into this state, since it really is all his fault, what with all the pressure about joining the Navy, that he's been putting on Felix since he was like fourteen is what drove Felix to first taking drugs and getting high.

And god only knows what Lil would do if she so happened to see Felix during one of his high and drunken episodes.

I sighed, figuring, even without the parental unit and annoying, psycho little sister around, tonight was going to be a long night.

* * *

><p>"Oh god." Felix said, quite randomly from where he had been passed out on my bed for the last four and something hours, while I've spent my time playing DOOM on my computer. I not going to admit that hearing him suddenly speak after hours of silence made me almost jump out of my skin. No, I'm not going to admit to that at all.<p>

"I'm sorry to say mate, but I highly doubt any religion would take you. Even Scientology." I said, not turning around since I was up against one of DOOM's bosses and I was being murdered. I just keep dying; have been doing so for the last flipping hour!

WAIT, now where the hell did he fucking go…

"They have aliens, not gods, moron." He grumbled back as he pegged a pillow at my head. It hit me in the back of the head, causing me to blink and miss my chance to kill the Cyberdemon… ok so more like get a shot in before he killed me… again.

"Still." I groaned as I watched myself die, yet again.

_Just give up already_, a voice in the back of my head said and with another groan, I twisted on my computer chair to instead face Felix. At least with him, I know I'm not going to be shot out with fire rockets… though I'm not going to put that in his brain, just in any case.

"How are you feeling?" I asked in an overly bright, loud voice.

He groaned, pressing a spare pillow to his face before suddenly, after a moment, he sat up looking around wildly, saying, "Oh god, I killed Paul."

"No, you didn't. You didn't kill Kenny either, if that's any…" he pegged another pillow at me.

"Stop that."

"Stop being a smart arse." He replied, pressing a hand to, I'm guessing, his throbbing head.

I pointed to some painkillers and water that I had set out for him on my bedside table for when he woke up.

"Were you really as bad as you looked? Or were you acting some of it?" I asked suspiciously, because beside from his obviously throbbing head, he looked and sounded like his old self again.

He sent me a sour look as he took the painkillers and drank from the glass deeply, draining it almost completely of water.

"I'm just better at getting over it these days." He replied and I pulled a face.

"That's not exactly something that you should be getting better at." I commented quietly and he sent me another sour look.

"Don't start."

"Don't start?" I quoted suddenly feeling angry. "You almost beat Paul to a pulp!"

"I hit him?" he asked, going, I was pleased to see, visibly paler.

"No," I admitted grudgingly, "but you were close to. You were just insulting him in Felix High/Drunken Language when I came across you two in the change rooms."

"Oh… but I didn't hit him or anything, right?"

"No, you might have, if I hadn't come in just then. Richter and his gang weren't going to stop you."

"Thanks."

"Uh huh."

"Look, I am sorry ok. I just lost it."

"Clearly."

"You know, you really are a smart arse when you want to be." Felix snapped, suddenly looking angry again. "Especially about things you don't understand and never will understand because you're so much better than the rest of us."

"I am not." I snapped back at him.

"Oh, like you don't think it." He shot back and I rolled my eyes at him.

"I don't and you know I don't. Would you just relax already, getting pissed off at me isn't going to help."

"Yeah, but it'd make me feel better." He growled.

"Are you actually angry at me? Or are you just looking to vent at someone? Because if either of those are the case and you hit me, you know that I can hit you back right? And I can promise you, I will break your nose and happily." he scowled angrily at my floor for awhile.

"I hate when you're like this." he finally growled and I rolled my eyes.

"Yeah and how do you think I feel when you're like this and I have keep you from fighting one of our friends and having to sneak you out of school and to my place? Like what?" he decided to ignore the first part of what I said and instead answered the second part.

"All logical and calm-like, like you're an adult instead of being three months younger than me."

"Would you rather I yell and scream at you?" I asked dryly.

He scowled half-heartedly at me.

"No, but I'd rather be talking to the guy who've I've known and been best friends with for eight years and watched, with amusement mind you, having more trouble asking out his girlfriend then I ever thought humanly possible, then someone who's acting the part of his psychoanalyst parents." I cringed a little as he said that final bit.

"Sorry."

"Yeah, well," he sighed heavily, "I am too. A lot." He leant back against my bed's head board, staring up at the glow-and-the- dark stars that I have stuck all over my ceiling. "Picking a fight with Paul…" he whistled slowly. "Shit."

"He didn't seem too bothered, once you both calmed down some." I reassured him, moving a little closer to him once I was sure he wasn't going to blow up at me again and possibly even punch me. I was relieved to see that Pavlov was curled up in his bed, watching us very closely mind, on the other side of my room, far out of harms way.

"Yeah, well," he sighed. "Shit."

"What happen?" I asked cautiously, still mindful of the fact that he could still loose it.

"I don't know." He replied slowly, "everything I guess. School, graduation, where I'm going to go and do afterwards, the Admiral," his face darken momentarily at the mention of his Dad, "Jude." He added her name lightly on to his list of problems, but you could hear the pain behind it more than with the others.

"You really like her don't you?" I asked.

"Uh huh," he said with a nod of his head, "and that's why I'm giving up."

"Huh?" I gagged out. "You're what?"

"I'm giving up. On her. Seriously, dude, you have to admit, she deserves someone way, _way_ better than someone like me."

"But," I was still reeling at this unexpected news, "you like her… a lot! More than I think you've liked anyone else… ever!"

"Exactly and that's why I'm going give up on her, because I do like her so much. And c'mon dude, you knew that she was never going to choose me."

"She might have… might still"

"Nah, she was going to get with Paul. I mean, that's who she hung out with at the Winter Dance and he's the one she gets on with best… well, besides you, but you're another matter entirely… and taken, so yeah."

"And you decided all this when?" I asked him dryly.

"Um, probably in the moments before you stopped me from breaking his face."

"So, you don't want her to be with him?" I asked confused now.

"Of course I don't." he replied hot temperedly. "I want to be with her!" Ok, now officially confused.

"And for that reason," he continued, somewhat more calmly, "is why I'm giving up… on her"

"Huh?"

He gave me a very dead-panned look before sighing.

"It made more sense in my head when I was high… and drunk."

"Ok, let me see if I can get this straight; you want to be with her but because you want to be with her you think she should be with Paul."

"Exactly… um, kinda. Wait, what are you saying?"

"What am I saying? What are _you_ saying?" I demanded completely confused and exasperated now.

"Look," he said sounding impatient now, "simply put; I'm bad for her. You know that, I know that, she probably knows that. Basically the whole flipping world knows that I'm bad for her and for that reason, I'm giving up on her. She deserves better than a mess up, pothead like me. She deserves someone like Paul… or you, except your taken and obviously even when you weren't, thing didn't work out between the two of you anyway." I felt my ears grow red at what he was implicating at. Of course, I had never told him about Jude and me and those times last year during November, but he's not stupid… well, not about these types of things. But anyway, for the moment I let it slide.

"That might all be so; you might be bad for her, very bad in fact." He shot me a 'not helping' look, but I ignore it and continued on, "but she is very, very good for you. I mean, besides this episode, you've been clean for months now and you've been doing better in class."

"Because I was trying to impress her, duh!"

"Yeah, and it has. She's been a good influence on you. So saying that you're bad for her when she's been such a good influence upon you is-is stupid and cowardly. That's like me saying that I can't be with Mia because she happens to be an heir to a country."

"But it's different for you and the princess. You two actually suit each other, weirdly enough. Jude and I don't and we have tried, remember special moron, those test dates? And she still can't choose who between us she wants to date and you can tell that's upsetting her like hell, so the only right thing that I can do, is make her not choose."

"Well, technically you still are. You're forcing her, by giving up on her, to choose Paul."

"Who is the better choice for her!"

"_She_ might not think so! Did you ever think of that in your pot-headed stated?" that got him for a moment, but then he shook his head.

"No, I've made up my mind."

"How can you make up your mind about something when you made it when you were high and drunk? Heck, you probably still are!"

"Mike, what are you doing? You've said so yourself that this whole thing between the three of is becoming ridiculous, past ridiculous in fact, so why won't you let me make things right… or whatever?"

"Because you're not in the right frame of mind to be making things right. Tomorrow, you're probably not even going to remember this conversation at all." I grumbled.

"I will."

"Won't"

"Then remind me tomorrow and see then if I don't still agree with what I'm saying now."

"Fine." I replied surely causing him to snort.

"Anyone would think you liked having all this drama in your life." He teased and I scowled at him, grabbing on the pillows that he had previously pegged at me and threw it back at him, hitting him square in the face.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> I don't know how many of you were still following the whole Jude/Felix/Paul triangle that I've been playing along in the background for the last two, going on three fics.  
>I hope not too many of you are upset with Felix "giving up" Jude for Paul. Actually while writing this chapter I had the strange desire to watch <em>The Vampire Diaries <em>because of the whole Elena/Stephan/Damon triangle and I guess I drew some parallel's between Damon and Felix's characters and their situations with the girls that they like.  
>Anyway, I hope you all still like Felix after this chapter, because despite how it looks, I haven't completely closed the door on the JudeFelix/Paul triangle just yet. I think that I will bring it back in later fics.  
>Anyway, hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I will hear from you all soon.<br>**Disclaimer:** Obviously I don't own the rights to the game DOOM or any references or quotes from South Park.


	10. Chapter 9

**Author's Note:** Hey everyone.  
>Lol, I can not believe how flipping long this chapter is. It's Thursday and Michael bearly appears in Mia's Diary Thursday and yet here, I've written ten pages about what he did during the day. So basically this is a chapter of which is basically pure fiction and having fun with the characters, not just Michael. Though in saying that, I do scar him somewhat in this chapter, which is amusing. He's going to think twice before looking in the G&amp;T supply closet, but I'll let you read about that and not spoil it for you here.<br>Anyway, enjoy and reviews are loved.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Nine<strong>

Felix ended up staying the night, mainly because he really couldn't be bothered going home and overall it was the better idea for him to simply stay at mine. We ended up sleeping in the den, since there are two couches there and my room is simply too small for two six foot and over eighteen year old guys to sleep in comfortably.

Lil came home around eleven, just before Mom and Dad. She hadn't been overly thrilled to see Felix, but then Lil is never thrilled to see any of my friends, so neither Felix or I took it personally.

Mom and Dad were, of course, a different matter entirely. But they made no objects to Felix staying the night; they were simply surprised that he was.

We watched the first Star Wars movie (the first and proper Star Wars movie) before we finally feel asleep.

And when we did fall asleep, it seemed far too soon, at least to me, to be kicked awake again.

"Fuck off." I grumbled, pulling the blanket I was using over my head.

"God, I wish I had a camera." A way too cheerful voice said somewhere near my legs, which received another kick. Not a hard one, no where near the standard that Lil kicks are, but still firmly enough to make me groan in discomfort.

"Get lost."

"It's lucky that I already know that Mia has seen you like this or I really would be asking your parents for their camera."

I opened my eyes and glared up at him, before sighing as I rolled off the couch (disturbing Pavlov who had been sleeping on my legs as I went), cringing a little as my neck cracked from the awkward position I had forced it to sleep in.

"Anyway, I'm off." Felix told me as I stretched.

"What?"

"I'm off. Out of here."

"Don't you want breakfast or anything?" I asked, eyeing him suspiciously. He had his school bag on and his uniform was neat… well as neat as Felix wears it.

"Nope." He made to leave the den.

"Felix." He stopped and looked back at with a trying to look innocent expression. "Do you remember anything from last night?" I asked and he pulled a face.

"Yes."

"All of it?"

"Yes."

I gave him a deadpanned expression.

"I do." He insisted.

"Uh huh."

"Seriously Mike, I remember. That's what I'm going to sort out now." I raised my eyebrow at him.

"How?"

"I-I don't know. I'll figure it out as I go."

I must still have looked sceptical because it picked up a cushion off the armchair near the door and pegged it at me. I caught it before it hit my face.

"Nice reflexes." He complimented or maybe I should be truthful and say complained.

"I've been improving them for the last fifteen, soon to be sixteen years." Felix looked momentarily confused before clicking on to what I meant or rather who before he grinned slightly.

"Look," I said after a moment of silence, "are you sure about this?"

"Dude, what else can I do?"

"Um…"

"Exactly. Look, despite what you might think, this really is for the best. Paul is better suited for her and she deserves someone who… isn't me."

I wasn't happy about this, even though I knew he had a pointed and seriously how else was this going to be solved? Jude hadn't picked either of them and it was causing friction, so by Felix stepping down, things could, hopefully, return back to normal.

"Ok, fine." I sighed, "but at least eat something first."

"Can't… I'll be sick if I do." He replied and started heading for our front door.

With a sigh, I followed him, Pavlov at my heels.

"Well, good luck, I guess." I said slowly.

"Yup." He replied as he crouched down and tried to get Pavlov to come to him so that he could give him a pat.

Pavlov stayed firmly by my legs.

"Anyways," he said with a snort as he stood back up again, "thanks for, you know, everything."

"I didn't do much." I said with a snort. "If anything I could have possibly have done more." I added, starting to feel guilty.

"Nah, you couldn't have. What you did was enough." He said with a sort sad grin before laughing. "My god, look at us… me! I'm eighteen years old and I'm acting like that this is the end of my life or something." He chuckled.

"Well, anyway, I'm off. Thank your Mom and Dad for letting me stay."

"Ok."

"Cool, thanks. So, see you at school then." He said and with that he left my apartment with me staring after him, still somewhat dumbfounded by everything, mainly he's sudden maturity.

"Michael, was that Felix leaving?" Mom asked as she came out into the foyer.

"Uh huh."

"Is everything alright?" I smiled grimly at her.

"I hope so." I replied before heading for my room to get ready for the day, praying that it would be better than the rest of this week.

* * *

><p>Though, of course, I was proved completely wrong, as the day turned out to be a crappy one.<p>

Main reason behind its crappiness was the fact that the Prom was cancelled and Mia was being blamed for it.

"It's a bit mean of your sister to say that it's all Mia's fault." I jumped at the sound of who was speaking to me, since she hadn't said anything more than a word or two to me almost all week.

"It's also a bit mean to not speak to your best friends for a week." I replied a little tersely.

Jude looked a little guilty as she took the seat beside me.

I wanted, badly, to return the silent treatment that she had been inflicting upon me, Felix and Paul. A little taste of her own medicine, but I couldn't find the energy to simply ignore her all of English. And beside Felix wasn't here… which I'm guessing is the reason why she is now talking to me.

I looked back at her and noticed her eyes were a little red and that she looked teary. So obviously, Felix had spoken to her this morning and obviously she wasn't taking it well. I was torn between feeling sorry for her and pleased that she was feeling bad about this.

"I'm sorry." She said softly and I sighed.

"It's ok. I can understand why you distanced yourself from all of us, though you do know it didn't help, right?" she nodded her head miserably before shaking herself.

"What are you going do about your sister?" she asked, changing the subject.

I scowled.

"You mean besides strangle her?"

"It wouldn't be your sister that you should be so interested in strangely." A foul tempered voice said in front of me and I groaned.

Josh was standing over me, looking more pissed off than I think I've ever seen him, more pissed then the times that I punched him in the face.

"Good morning to you too, sunshine." I said overly cheerily back at him and his pissed off expression became even darker.

"Do you have any idea what I've just had to put up with?" he snarled at me.

"You mean, you had to put up with something worse than yourself?" I asked in mock horror and surprise.

Jude giggled beside me.

"Yeah, my girlfriend!" He snapped at me, then paused realising that I had just insulted him and in retaliation, he had just insulted his girlfriend.

Jude and several other people in class giggled even harder around us. Richter actually turned slightly red.

"Shut up." He ordered, effectively shutting up the whole class. He turned his pissed off glare once more upon me, "Your freakishly tall, bitch of girlfriend…" I stood up really fast at that, my previously frustrated, but relatively laid-back mood gone, replaced with me now feeling pissed off and angry.

"What did you just call her?"

"You heard me." he snarled back, "has fucked up the prom. Cancelled it and for what? Because her messed up, royal-pain-in-the-ass grandmother won't say sorry and let some nobody kid get his job back!"

"There's more to it then that I think." Jude squeaked as she got up beside me, clearly trying to calm and stop any fight between us breaking out.

"Like I fucking care if there is more to it than that. His," he pointed at me, "fucking girlfriend cancelled prom."

I wanted to hit him, badly. It was taking all my self control to not hit him.

"What's the deal?" he near yelled at me, " you didn't want to take her to the prom, so she decided that she'd mess it up for everyone else by getting it cancelled. I swear, when I see that bitc…" I grabbed the collar of his school shirt and because I caught him by surprise, otherwise I would never have been able to have done it, slammed him against the wall beside us.

"Say one more word about her and I swear I will both physically and socially murder you." I snarled.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?" Came the horrified shriek of Mrs Weinstein as she came bolting up the rows of tables to where we, Richter and I, stood. "Michael let him go NOW!"

I hesitated for a moment before realising his collar, which he straight while still glaring at me.

I glared right on back at him.

"Both of you calm down." Mrs Weinstein ordered, as she came to stand with us.

"Michael," she jerked her thumb at me, "go take a walk. Josh, sit down somewhere away from Michael for when he comes back… after he's calm down." She said as she grabbed my arm and purposefully pulled me out of her classroom.

"Why do I have to take a walk while he gets to stay put?" I asked once we were out of her classroom.

"Because he wasn't the one who looked like he was about beat something into a pulp. Be grateful I'm not sending to the Principles office." I scowled down the hall, my eyes lingering on Mia's Algebra classroom.

"Why aren't you?" I asked suddenly, surprised that I wasn't being sent there for getting into an almost fight with Richter.

"Why aren't I what, Michael?" Mrs Weinstein asked me tiredly.

"Sending me to Gupta's office."

"Because I can guess what happened between you and Richter and," she gave me a look that clearly said that if I repeated what she was about to say to me, she would happily have me killed, "I think it was sweet of you to defend your girl. Especially when no one else around here seems to be keen to." She rolled hers eyes to the heavens.

"She's going to have a bad day." She warned me. "I already gave one kid detention for throwing a soda can at her." I gagged at that and without even thinking, I started moving for Mia's classroom.

I hadn't seen her this morning, too busy was I trying to find Felix and to ask him how it went with Jude that I lost track of time.

"She's fine." Mrs Weinstein said quickly, clearly seeing where I was heading, "her bodyguard deflected it before it hit her."

I nodded, still desperate to see if she was ok.

"Go see her, take this period off, it's not like we're doing anything. I'm sure Judith will happily take care of your things for you." I stared at her in surprise but did as she said.

"Thanks." I said and she simply nodded before walking back into her classroom, shutting the door firmly behind her.

Without another thought, I headed for Mia's Algebra classroom, furious at what I saw happening inside of it.

The death glares Mia was receiving were insane and completely stupid. I mean, all of them, with the exception of Lana, weren't even going to the stupid prom in the first place and yet here they were acting like they had been and now they weren't and it was all her fault.

I could have strangled each and every one of them and was for the first time, I think, ever, I felt pissed off at Mr G, for not doing anything about what was happening inside his classroom to his step-daughter!

Mia had her head down on her desk, her forehead resting on her crossed arms, clearly trying to ignore the glares, quiet jibes that were being hissed her way, and bits of rubber and other crap being flicked at her.

Her shoulders gave a shudder and I snapped.

But just as I was going to knock on the doorframe of the classroom, making up some excuse as to get Mia out of there, Mr G (_finally_) came to her rescue.

"Mia," he said as he looked up from a piece of paper that he had been writing on. Mia lifted her head slowly from her arms and even from where I was, I saw that her eyes were red and that she had obviously been crying, " can you take these," he picked up some papers, "to the office for me, please. I need them to be photocopied. All the information of how many I need of each, are on this note." He said as he placed the note that he had just been writing on top of the pile. "Take your things with you, since it might take awhile to get this stuff all copied, ok." She nodded as he spoke, not speaking as she picked up all her books and things and put them into her bag.

She walked up the aisle between the desks, tripping occasionally over unexpected feet suddenly appearing there. I was please to see Lars smacking the back of heads of several of the kids that had tried to trip Mia up.

She took the papers from Mr G without a word and walked out of her classroom and basically straight into me.

She staggered a little from the impact, causing me to reach out and steady her.

"Hey." I said, heart breaking slightly as she looked up at me, surprise written all over her tear-wet face.

"Hi." She said quietly as I brushed off bits of rubber and ripped up paper from her hair and school sweater. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Um, kinda got kicked out of class for picking a fight with Richter." I said as we started walking slowly towards the admin office.

She looked up at me again, this time in alarmed.

"Wh-what? Why?"I raised an eyebrow at her and she seemed to click on, for her eyes grew dark once more and she sniffed.

"Oh, _that_." she mumbled.

"Uh huh." I heard her sniff again and I felt my heart squeeze in response.

"Mia," I said as I wrapped my arm around her waist, and pulled her closer to me, "this isn't your fault. They're just being immature."

"But I ruined the prom."

"No, you didn't." I sighed, "The strike is what ruined prom."

"A strike that was caused by what my grandmother did." She wailed miserably beside me.

Lars and I both shushed her, since even though we had notes to be out here, neither of us wanted for all of us to be caught out here, especially with Mia in the state that she was currently in.

"Yeah, but that still doesn't make this your fault. They're all being immature, selfish brats who don't know the real truth of the matter, only knowing what they want to know, not what really happened."

"Still…"

"Mia." I said, grabbing her shoulders, causing her to stop and gave her a little shake. "this-is-not-your-fault! Ok?"

She simply nodded glumly back at me and I sighed and kissed the top of her head. I heard her sniff again.

"This isn't just about prom, is it?" I guess and she shook her head and handed me a copy of the Special Supplementary Edition from_ The Atom_. I read through it quickly before sighing.

"Lilly?" she nodded again with another sniff.

"'Former Friend.'" Mia quoted thickly.

I squeezed her close to me.

"Shush, it's ok. C'mon, you know how she gets about these things. She probably didn't mean it the way it sounds here."

She gave another sniff but nodded, giving me a little smile before we continued on to the admin office.

* * *

><p>The ladies at Admin smiled widely as Mia and I handed them the papers that Mr G wanted to photocopied, not appearing overly bothered by the fact that Mia and I (and Lars) parked ourselves into some of the chairs in the foyer.<p>

And that's where we stayed for basically the rest of first period.

"Do me a favour." I said as I walked Mia to her next class, after we had returned to Mr G's room to give him the photocopies, glaring at anyone who glared at Mia. "if someone pegs something at you, peg it back… and hard."

"Are you actually telling me to use violence?" Mia asked looking amused.

"Maybe."

"Then by telling me that, doesn't that then prove what my Grandmother said about you being a bad influence on me to be true?"

"Nope." I replied with a cheeky grin.

"How's that?"

"Because your grandmother was the one who said it." I said, pulling her into an empty stairwell.

"I should…" she trailed off as I kissed her mouth.

"I'll come by after this class and walk you to third period, ok?" she nodded. "Try not to let them get you down, ok?" I leant my forehead against hers.

"Ok."

"Good." I kissed her again. "Now, get to class." I said with mock seriousness, though in truth I didn't want to send her back out there, where all the stupid, hateful glares are, where stupid people are throwing crap at her.

I swear, if I could get away with it, I'd bang every single one of those stupid morons heads together.

I watched as she walked the rest of the way to her next class, Lars beating me to it with the whole 'must kill or at least maim' plan, when he deflected an apple core that had been hauled at Mia, right back at the thrower, hitting him square in the forehead.

I know I wasn't the only person who laughed at that.

* * *

><p>The rest of the day was crap too. I mean, at least Jude was talking to us (Paul and me. Felix has decided that after his talk with Jude he'd take the rest of day off, since he wasn't feeling well after everything yesterday. I've been texting every hour or so, checking up on him, making sure he hasn't done anything stupid, like walked in front of a bus or something. He's fine, just hanging out with his techno-geek cousin in SoHo for the day.) again.<p>

She and Paul seem to be getting along fine, though nothing between them was screaming out that they were going out or anything like that. But I guess this is due to the awkwardness of the past few weeks.

"Is Felix ok?" Paul asked me during computer graphics.

I looked at him in surprise, before nodding.

"Yeah, he is, he's just having he's senior skip day early."

"Lucky we don't have anymore finals this week." Paul replied and I nodded.

"Why did he do it?"

"What?"

"Give up on Jude?" I sighed heavily as he pointed at Jude who was sitting a few computers in front off, talking with a couple of girls in our class.

"Because he thinks that she deserves someone better than him." He just stared at me.

"I don't know. That's what he thinks and he thinks what happen yesterday backs him up."

"Oh yeah… that."

"You actually forgot that he almost beat you into a Cream of Wheat, didn't you?"

"Kinda…"

"How do you do that?" I asked him in disbelief.

He shrugged.

"It's a gift. And I didn't totally forget, he apologized this morning for what happened, you know, in a very Felix like apology."

"'I'm sorry, though I won't admit I'm wrong'" I quoted.

"Yeah, something like that, though he did actually admit that he was wrong, but he said everything so fast that really I only heard bits."

"He's like my sister, doesn't apologize often so that when she/he actually has to, they don't know how, so tend to rush it and make things, if possible even more awkward." I replied and Paul looked somewhat amused. Then he looked somewhat worried.

"What should I do?"

I sighed.

"Truth be told, I have no fucking idea. I just want us to get back to how we've been before all… this."

"Same. But, I still do like her."

"Then ask her out."

"What if she says no, because deep down she really likes Felix."

"Look," I said with a sigh, "you remember how the three of you gave me all that crap for not simply asking Mia out the moment I found out that I liked her? You guys just told me to bite the bullet and just ask her. Well, same advice, bite the bullet and just ask her."

He sighed heavily.

"Ok."

"Cool, good."

I thought that with this, my day might improve. It didn't, it got simply crapper, in a sort of interesting way.

* * *

><p>It was at lunch that I discovered that Mia wasn't around anymore. I mean, I had walked her to third period, but hadn't been able to do so to her fourth, mainly because we were on opposite sides of the school, so I didn't see her then. But when I went for lunch, she wasn't there, anywhere.<p>

I didn't bother asking my sister where she was and I couldn't ask any of Mia's friends because I didn't know where any of them were.

There are some real down side to having a girlfriend who is in a group of unpopular outcasts and not because they are either unpopular or outcast, but rather because they simply are. And because they are unpopular and outcasts, no one takes any notice of them, so that when you're searching for one of them, you can't find them because no one knows where they are since no one was paying them any attention so they can simply slip away without notice.

And yes, I did try her mobile but of course it was off.

I hunted all over the school for her, trying not to be too worried. You know, because she does have a six foot tall, heavily armed bodyguard following her about everywhere, so it's not like she's been dragged off and murdered in some secluded classroom, but still, you know, I worried.

I was just starting to think that maybe she was hiding out in the G&T closet (I don't know, I was getting desperate), so I went to check there.

But as soon as I did, I kinda wished I hadn't.

I don't take pleasure in walking into other people's make-out session. I don't take any pleasure in people walking in on Mia and mine make-out sessions either, as rare as they are, which is why I get kinda mad when we do get interrupted since I know it will be awhile again before we find another chance to do so.

So as soon as I opened the closet door, saw what was happening behind it, I immediately closed it again.

Only to open it again as I did a double take as to who was in there.

"Boris!"

I do admit, it was sort of amusing, watching the two of them jump apart as if I had tasered them or something, but I was too busy trying to get my head around what I was seeing. Way too much for one thing.

As I said before, I don't take any pleasure walking in on people making-out. And I wasn't even really what you would call surprise to see these two make-out, well, I guess I am, if only because it was so soon after Boris's globe encounter or maybe it's because of that, that this has happened.

"Wow," I couldn't help but say as the two of them tumbled out of the closet, "that was quick." I added to Boris who went the brightest shade of red I think I've seen him turn.

"Hey Tina," I said, turning my attention on to her, because surprise, surprise she was the girl that Boris had just been making-out with in the G&T closet before I rudely interrupted them.

"Hi Michael." She squeaked. She looked positively terrified to see me standing there in front of them.

I fought back the desire to roll my eyes and instead asked.

"Do you know where Mia is?"

"Oh," she looked relieved for a moment then worried, "she went home. Lars rang her Dad, said it was in her best interests and for her own safety that she should leave school, after the close call with a senior rugby player."

"He tried to hit her?" I asked with a snarl.

Tina's Bambi eyes widen again as she shook her head fiercely.

"Nnnoooo. He just threw a soda can at her with stunning accuracy."

"So he hit her!"

"NO! I mean, it would have, hit her, I mean, if it weren't for Lars. He stopped it from hitting her and that's when he decided that it was time to for her to go home."

"Right." I said with a sigh, going through the list of senior rugby players, trying to figure out who threw the can and then kill him. "Know who threw it?"

"N-no." she was so lying, but with a regretful sigh, I didn't push it.

"Where's Wahim?" I asked, suddenly aware that her bodyguard wasn't around.

"Oh," and Tina went red in the face again, but with pleasure this time, "he's across the hall, trying to sweep Mademoiselle Klein off her feet." She said dreamily.

Once again, I fought the desire to roll my eyes at her.

"But isn't she with Mr Wheeton?" I asked her, somewhat dryly.

"Oh yes, well, it'd be far more romantic if she got together with Wahim or maybe Lars. Oh, they could fight over her." she said with a squeal of delight, "That'd be so romantic!"

I glanced at Boris who went a little red in the face but he looked, for the first time, in a long, long time, to be happy. Really happy. I don't actually think I've seen him this happy in all the time I saw him with Lil.

Well, I guess I was right about Boris and Tina being better together then Lil and Boris.

It was then, as Tina continued to gush over how romantic it would be for the two bodyguards to fight over Mademoiselle Klein that I noticed that she and Boris were holding hands.

"Ok, well," I said, starting to back away from the two of them. I mean, Lil calls Mia and I sickening together, but we're nothing compared to these two! They just have sickeningly sweet written all over them, "I'm gonna… I'm gonna go and… yeah."

"Um, Michael." Boris said, though he looked relieved that I was going. I mean, is just me or were the two of them backing slowly back into the closet? "What about class?"

"Huh?"

"Um, G&T is in, like," he glanced at his watch and pouted slightly, "five minutes."

"Yeah, well I need to get my stuff. Bye you two." And I bolted as fast as I could out of there.

"What's with you?" Paul asked when he saw me with my head my locker, shuddering.

"Cute overload." I replied, trying to get over the nauseousness that seeing Boris and Tina, together, had caused.

"What?"

"Cute overload?"

"You and Mia?"

"No… Boris and Tina."

Paul didn't look too surprise to hear that. But then, he was, after all, the one who put the whole them two being good together conclusion into my head in the first place.

"Did you catch them kissing?" he asked.

"More like making-out."

"You ok with that?"

"What?" I gave him a weird look.

He rolled his eyes at me.

"Well, he did date your sister for, what? Six-seven months."

"Eight." I corrected and he looked momentarily amazed. I mean, wouldn't you be? To hear that a guy, like Boris Pelkowski, was still alive after dating my sister for eight months? I know, I'm still trying to figure out how he got out of it alive.

"Ok eight then. You don't feel weird or any kind of brotherly protectiveness knowing that Boris is over your sister so quick?"

"Nope. After how she's treated him these last few days and basically the whole time that they were together, I don't. If anything, I'm happy for him."

"Cool. Well, see you later then." He said and waved as he headed for his next class.

With a sigh and another shudder, I headed back for the G&T classroom, where I heard someone scream "how could you!" that sounded a lot like my sister.

Seconds later, I was proven right as she came bolting out of the G&T classroom. Guess she or someone else while she was in there, discovered Boris and Tina in the supply closet.

"Lilly!" I heard Tina weakly call after my sister who was barrelling towards me.

I tried to sidestep her, but she still collided with me, causing me to stagger backwards a little.

"Oi," I gasped, completely winded, "What's your problem?"

Lil scowled at me and I was surprised to actually see tears in her eyes. Though if they were tears of pain or humiliation, I couldn't tell because she shoved past me and stormed down the hall.

"Lil, class!" I called after her, not expecting a response. But I got one anyway. Not looking back, Lil made a rude hand gesture back at me.

"Charming." I said rolling my eyes after her, before turning to where Tina and Boris were standing behind me, and behind them the rest of the G&T class peered after Lil with degrees of amusement.

Boris and Tina on the other hand, didn't look amused. Not even close, in fact both looked horrified and insanely guilty over being found out by Lil.

"Stop feeling guilty, you both did nothing wrong besides knock Lil's ego down a few notches, which isn't a bad thing and needs to be done from time to time." I told them. They looked up at me hesitantly. "I mean it," I further assured them, "neither of you have done anything wrong, seriously."

"Ok-ay." They both said slowly, looking at each other then after Lil. Then back at each other

"Right, Ok, I'm going to class. See you there Boris." I said quickly as I darted around them, because they were getting these sorts of puppy-dog looks about as they stared at each other.

I walked to class shuddering, super cute overload. If Mia and I ever act like those two, I'll actually give Lil permission to shoot us both.

Or maybe just me, because the thought of Mia being dead actually makes me feel quite ill, like seriously.

Ok, maybe not shoot us, but possibly kick our ankles to smithereens Yeah, that's better.

I need serious help.

* * *

><p>When I went home that afternoon, I found that I was the only person there besides Maya, who greeted me with a smile before continuing with her work. I was a little surprised that it was only Maya and me home, since I knew Lil hadn't gone to any of her afternoon classes (Tina informed me of this when school finished. She and Boris still looked quite guilty over the whole thing 'Lil finding them in a closet together and making-out', even though personally I think Lil deserved it. I mean, Hello, has there been better irony then this? It was, in some ways, the best way Lil could have found out about them, by finding them in a closet, making-out. Gods, she must be so pissed!), I thought that she may have come home in a huff, pretending to be sick to get past Maya's interrogations as to why she wasn't at school.<p>

I wasn't sure where she in fact was, but I guessed probably somewhere where Jangbu was. It seemed to be a safe bet. Though, of course, I turned out to be wrong about that.

She was in fact over at Mia's for a good chunk of the afternoon, asking for forgiveness for all the grief she had given Mia this week and to rant about Boris and Tina getting together.

"I can't believe she forgave you." I said as we set the table waiting for Mom and Dad to come home so that we could eat Maya's delicious dinner. They were quite late, for them. They're usually home around six, but it was almost seven.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Lil demanded as she laid out knives and forks.

"Um, let me think. Ah, well to start with there's that article in _The Atom_ about Prom being cancelled and you saying that the whole cause behind the prom being cancelled and for the strike and whatever else you were blaming on her, was all Mia's fault."

"I said her grandmother's fault." Lil snapped.

"Nope, well you did, but you still said it was Mia's fault too." I said as I pulled out _The Atom_ from my pant's pocket, where I had crumbled it up in disgust earlier today.

Lil made a lunge for it but I held it out of her reach, quoting as I moved around the dinner table to avoid her.

"'It's all Mia's fault. Or at least her grandmother's.'" I quoted back at her in disgust. "Do you know how much crap she had to deal with today because of this dumb article, because of what you wrote, her 'former friend'." I spat at her. "Seriously Lil, why would you say all that? Calling her your 'former friend' and saying that this was all her fault? Do you know how much you hurt her?"

"She's fine." Lil said, sounding dismissive about the whole thing.

"No, she isn't, Lil. God, how can you be so blind? How can you not see how much you've hurt both Mia and Boris this past week, with everything that you done to them and put them through? And now you have the nerve to actually be pissed off at Boris for moving on to Tina. What the hell is your problem?"

"That's what we'd like to know?" Lil and I both jumped at the sound of Mom's voice. Oosps… Oh god, how long had they been standing there? I mean, as much as I think Lil deserves to punished for all that she's done this past week, punishment by our parents is harsh. Spending hours on end being psychoanalysed and by your parents, trust me, is the worse kind of punishment that is out there.

"Right," I said, moving as fast as I possible could away from my sister, who shot me a 'don't you dare leave me with them' look to which I returned with 'you brought this upon yourself, the only person you can blame for this is you' and our parents who seemed to not mind my sudden departure from the room.

"I've got to take Mia's homework to her. Bye." I said and bolted from the room, which I seemed to have done a lot today.

Now if I thought I could find some sort of solitude or sanctuary when I reached Mia's, I was terribly, terribly wrong. The cherry for this crappy day was waiting there when I arrived.

I knocked on her door, wondering why no one had answered the downstairs buzzer, though it was only a brief thought for at that moment, the door was flung open by a very flushed, thoroughly fed up with everything Mia, who looked at me with a look that clearly read 'you weren't who I was expecting or hoping for but you'll do', which, of course, did wonders for my ego. That is, until I saw who was sitting at the kitchen table glaring at us beneath purple tattoo eyelids.

I looked in slight terror from Mia's grandmother to Mia then back again.

Mia nodded her head slowly, with a 'get me out of here' expression now written all over her face.

"Um, hey." I managed to say, noting Clarisse look of disgust as she looked me up and down from where she was sitting at the table.

"Hey."

"Here's your homework from the classes that you missed today." I said as I handed her, her schoolwork. "Tina gave them to me." I explained when she looked from them to me questioning.

"Ah." She said as she flicked through the pages of work that she had to do, "thanks."

I was dying to ask her why the hell her grandmother was staying at hers. I mean, I know there's that whole strike thing going on that Clarisse's more or less caused, but the people at the Plaza wouldn't really kick her out, would they?

"I'll explain tomorrow." Mia promised me and with a sigh, I said bye and goodnight to her, since I knew, what with her grandmother being there, that I wouldn't be able to go in nor get a kiss goodbye.

Gods, when was the last time Mia and I have kissed without some kind of interruption?

….

Ok, this is depressing.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Ok, so that was chapter 9. Hehehe, you can see that I had fun with this chapter huh? I don't know why I wrote in half the stuff that I did in this chapter, like the Mia/Michael scene that wasn't in the book, Michael's almost fight with Josh (Did anyone actually want them to fight?) and Michael stumbling upon Boris and Tina in the G&T supply closet. None of these things happened in the book, but I still felt like writing them into this fic anyway. I mean, what the hell, why not? It adds to the story and makes it orginal... I just hope that on the off, off, off chance that Meg ever reads these fics, I haven't offended her in anyway and that she is happy with how I portray her character in these fiscs.  
>By the way, I'm almost finished writing book 5 (YAY!). I'm up to writing The Prom, so another chapter or two and I'll be done and starting book 6.<br>Is everyone ok with the name 'Sixfeet Under SkinnerBx' as book 6 title?  
>Anyway, hope to hear from you all soon.<br>Bye for now.


	11. Chapter 10

****Author's Note:**** Hi Everyone. Another long chapter for you guys to read. Another ten pager. But it's ten pages filled with fun and Michael awsome/awkwardness for you all to feast upon.  
>I hope that you all enjoy and comments at love, as you all know, lol.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Ten<strong>

You know, I never thought I'd be happy about today being senior skip day, but… I am!

For one thing, all the people who want Mia dead because of the stupid prom won't be there to give her a hard time about it!

Another thing, it sort of gave my parents an excuse to keep Lil home from school today. Even though Senior Skip Day doesn't, in fact, apply to her because she is, of course, not a senior, but they're still using it as an excuse to keep her home so that the three of them can have a nice long chat about her obvious disestablishmentarianism and about the way she treated both Boris and Mia this past week.

Yeah… and I am so outta here.

Ok, I admit that isn't another reason as to why I'm happy it's Senior Skip Day, it's more a Lil Stays Home Because She's In Deep Shit Day, but either way, she's staying home from school today, meaning that I more or less get to have Mia all to myself today, which is why I'm pretty happy about the day.

So before my parents could try and convince me to stay home as well, so that we could have a whole family psychoanalyst session (yeah… right), I bolted out of our apartment the first chance I got and waited outside for Mia to come and pick me up for school.

I had texted her earlier this morning, asking if she wanted to come by mine earlier than usual to pick me up. Her response to my text was something along the lines of Dear God, Yes!

"Hey." I greeted her as soon as I hopped into the limo.

"Hi." She said smiling, even though I could see dark circles underneath her eyes, like she hadn't slept properly in a week, which considering the week that she's been having, I'm not surprised.

I gave her a quick good morning kiss as we set off.

"Mom and Dad finally found out about all the school Lil's skipped and about the press conferences that she's held this week." I told her and Mia looked torn between being pleased and slightly worried. "They've gone all 7th Heaven on her, making her stay home from school today so that the three of them can have a nice long talk about everything she's done this week."

"Is that why you wanted us to come and pick you up earlier than usual?" she asked in amusement.

"Duh! You were my Get of Jail Free card." I said as I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to me as I kissed her forehead.

"So that's what's happening at my house. Now please explain what the hell is happening at yours. Why was your grandmother there last night? Please tell me she was only visiting."

"Nope, I wish." She sighed and then explained why her grandmother was staying over at hers.

"So, let me get this straight," I started once she had finished, trying to keep my face straight as I spoke, "she's over at yours basically because no one at the Plaza would run her a bath?"

"Basically… and yes, you can laugh." She added when she saw how hard I was trying not too.

"I'm sorry." I chuckled, "but seriously? God, your grandmother really is ridiculous, isn't she?"

"You have no idea." Mia agreed as her limo pulled up in front of school.

"Thank you, Hans. See you after school." She said to her driver, who smiled at her and replied with he hoped she had a good day at school today.

"Bye." I said to him and he gave me a nod and a smile.

The three of us stood outside AEHS for a few moments, taking in how deserted it looked, it was quite early still before deciding that we'd go to Ho's and get ourselves some much needed breakfast.

I hadn't had any in my rush to get out of the apartment and Mia had apparently been too worked up by her grandmother's presence at her house, that she ate hardly anything for breakfast, so both our stomachs were grumbling in hunger.

While at Ho's buying our breakfast (an egg sandwich for me and Ring Dings for Mia), the moment that Lars in the refrigerated section buying his morning can of Red Bull, I grabbed Mia and pulled her into a secluded part of the store and start kissing her, making up for our lack of kisses over the past couple of days.

For a second after I started kissing her, she froze before relaxing against me, her arms wrapping around my neck as mine went around her waist, her fingers threading themselves through my hair.

I would have liked to have spent the whole day simply doing this, kissing her, but all too soon, we were interrupted by Lars subtly coughing that we needed to get moving or we'd be late for school.

* * *

><p>Not that that really matter, since when I arrived at my homeroom, I was the only one there and oddly enough I was the only one who turn up for English as well.<p>

I thought at least Jude would turn up, but it became quite apparent basically from the moment that I walked into class that I was going to be the only person who was going to bother turning up today.

Mrs Weinstein didn't seem overly bothered by the lack of students in her classroom; she was armed with a copy of the latest Cosmo and seemed quite content to spend the period reading that. Just as I was quite content to spend the period working on my laptop. Ok, when I say working, I mean more like playing Doom.

But my plans were interrupted, as they usually are, because just as I was setting up my laptop I heard Mia's voice inside the classroom. My classroom.

"Excuse me, Mrs Weinstein, but may I have a word with Michael?" my head immediately whipped to the front of the room where she was standing beside Mrs Weinstein desk.

"Whatever, Mia." Mrs Weinstein replied, turning a page of Cosmo, not overly bothered by the fact that Mia was there at all. But… Why was she here at all? It didn't look like anything was wrong, so why was she here?

I watched, somewhat dumbfounded, as Mia came bounding down the row of desks to where I was sitting, slipping into the desk in front me, smiling as she gushed out, " Michael, remember how you said that you'd only go to the prom if the guys of your band went, too?"

I stared at her, trying to figure out where the hell this had come from.

I could see over Mia's head, Lars leaning against the classroom doorframe, watching us in amusement but giving no clues whatsoever as to what Mia was all about.

"What are you doing here?" I asked instead, "Does Mr G know you're here? You're going to get into trouble again…"

"Never mind that," Mia interrupted me impatiently, like her getting into trouble with her step-father/Algebra teacher was no big issue at all, "Just tell me. Did you mean it when you said you'd go to the prom if the guys from your band went, too?"

"I guess so," I said rather weakly, still trying to see where the hell all this was coming from, "But, Mia, the prom got cancelled, remember?"

This was when her grin began to widen and her whole face seemed to glow with a certain smugness that I wasn't used to seeing on her.

"What if I told you," she started, trying to sound all casual… and failing, "that the prom was back on," oh wonderful. But at least she'll be left alone now, "and that they need a band," wha… "and the band the Prom Committee has chosen is YOURS?"

You have got to be kidding me…

"I'd say…" you fucking kidding me, right? "get out of town." She had to be kidding, right? I mean, there is no bloody way in hell that Weinberger would choose my band to play at her silly prom. No way, no way in flipping hell!

"I am totally serious." Mia said and she looked it too, "And I will not get out of town." My lips twitched into a slight smile at that, "Oh, Michael," slight smile gone, a huge amount of panic at that voice taking over, the voice that I'm pretty sure I'll agree to anything it requests, "_please_ say yes, I want to go to the prom _so badly_…" she was close to begging, her eyes all wide and for some reason, and maybe this is just me, they looked silver rather than grey at this particular moment. Crap…

"You do?" Oh god… damn. "But the prom is so… lame."

"I know its lame." Then why do you want to go then? "I know it is, Michael. But that doesn't alter the fact that I have been dreaming of going to the prom for my entire life, practically. And I really believe that I could achieve total self-actualization if you and I went to the prom together tomorrow night…" She completely lost me with the self-actualization part of her little speech, but I basically got the gist of it. The gist is while most girls of her age spend their entire lives dreaming about their future wedding, my girl, on the other hand, instead dreams about going to the prom…

Is it wrong that I would have preferred her dreaming about her wedding day rather than the prom? No, I'm completely serious about this. I seriously would have preferred (and oddly enough, be more comfortable with) to know that she dreamed about her wedding day more than going to a stupid high school prom. But no, that isn't the case… of course it isn't. This is Mia after all.

I know for a fact that Mia hasn't thought one bit about her future wedding, deciding that since she is a royal, she'll probably have no say in what happens at her wedding and who would be invited to it since her grandmother will probably just take the whole thing over, so she simply doesn't even bother thinking about it… at all.

And even before that, when she was a little kid, she wasn't planning her future wedding; too busy was she building starships out of Star Wars Lego… with me.

_Hey, it's a gig_, a voice in my head pointed out. _Mia's got you a gig, humour her. She doesn't ask for much, so just agree already._

"Uh," I started intelligently, "Well, Ok. I guess so. If you feel that strongly about it." I said weakly. I thought for a moment she might get mad at me for my lack of, well… I know most guys do not ask their girlfriends to the prom like _that_. And actually, it's _her_ asking _me_ and only through the fact that she's somehow managed to get the Prom Committee to agree to having my band playing at it, otherwise, she probably wouldn't and…

All other thoughts fled from me as Mia basically grabbed my head and kissed me right on the mouth. I thought that it would only be a quick kiss being that Mia is generally quite shy about kissing me in front of other people, such as my English teacher for example, but instead it turned into quite a long, heated kiss.

Possibly a little too heated for where we were and the only clear, straight thought running through my brain was, 'thank god I'm sitting down and that there is a desk between us or things could get really, really awkward'.

"_Mia_." I finally managed to strangle out as I found the strength to pull away from her kiss, if I didn't do it soon, I would be in serious trouble.

Dammit, why does she have to kiss me like that when we're in front of people? Why can't she ever do it when we're alone?

_Because you're never alone_, a snarky voice in my head reminded me.

Mia, completely obvious to my discomfort about what had just happen, or maybe she was ignoring it, simply smiled widely at me before bouncing back out of my classroom, with a "See ya, Mrs Weinstein," before disappearing out into the corridor, with Mrs Weinstein and me staring after her in dumb silence.

Out of the corner of my eye, before he left to follow Mia, I saw Lars laughing as he sent me a 'told you so' look before laughing some more.

"Ah…" I said to Mrs Weinstein, once we had shaken ourselves of out shock.

"It's fine Michael."

"Uh huh. Ok." I said, still trying to get my head around what had just happen and to calm all the chaos that Mia had started within my body by her kiss.

She comes, devastates with a smile, and then leaves, I thought before I groaned.

* * *

><p>"Why do you just look like a man who has just been handed his death sentence?" Paul called to me as I trudged into Chem.<p>

He, Judith and surprising Trevor too (apparently he got bored in his empty classroom, so decided to come and invade ours) were sitting at the back of the room, staring at me with worried expressions.

Ok, so Paul and Trevor looked worried, Judith's looked more curious with a sprinkle of smug knowingness about her.

I flopped miserably in a chair beside them, crossing my arms against the lab bench top, and dropped my head on to them with a thump.

"Mia's finally convinced you to take her to prom, hasn't she?" Judith guessed.

I grunted and I heard her giggle next to me.

"You're good." I heard Paul compliment her, causing her to laugh.

"It's gift."

I made another grumbling noise at that

"Wait," Trevor said sounding suddenly confused "isn't Prom cancelled because of the strike?"

"Not anymore apparently." Jude replied, "The Prom Committee has found a new place for the prom to be held at."

"Really? How, why and who made that happen?"

It was here that I stopped feeling sorry for myself as I remembered something very, very important that I had to tell both Paul and Trevor.

"Are you two going to Prom tomorrow night?"

"Ah?" Paul said looking confused.

"No." Trevor said flat out, without even a thought.

"Well, too bad, you're going. Both of you."

"What?" the two of them yelped.

"Uh huh, because we have a gig."

"We have a what now?" Paul asked, staring at me in disbelief.

Trevor was simply staring at me with his mouth hanging open.

"A gig. At the prom."

"Way to go." Jude said, though she looked as shocked as Paul and Trevor.

"What? How? Or maybe more importantly, why did you even agree?" Trevor demanded.

"You mean besides the fact that it's an actual gig?" I asked and he rolled his eyes at me.

"At the Prom? C'mon Mike, there is no way in hell that those cheerleaders on the Prom Committee would ever let us play at the prom. Wait," Trevor eyed me suspiciously, "Is this some form of blackmail that your girlfriend is using to get you to take her to the prom?"

"No. Though she does want to go, but that's beside the point," I added when Trevor started to look triumphant, "the point is we have a gig and a gig is a gig, no matter where it is. Alright?"

"Oh, man, can't we just stick forks in our eyes, instead?"

"NO!" I replied and I wasn't the only one.

"A gig is gig. Get over it." I said firmly.

"Fine." Trevor grumbled. "But I refuse to dance."

"That's fine, since we're the only music playing there, which means we'll be stuck on stage for basically the whole prom."

"Sweet. We can play whatever we want then." Trevor said looking marginally happier about the whole thing, while Jude and Paul looked still confused.

"And Mia gets what out of this?" Paul asked puzzled.

I shrugged.

"You mean besides getting to see her boyfriend up on stage?" Jude laughed and I rolled my eyes at them.

"I don't know. I just know that she had something to do with us getting this gig."

"Are we getting paid?" Trevor asked curiously.

"Um, I think we are, actually." I replied as I remembered earlier, out in the corridor, Weinberger stalking over to me, grumbling something about money and so on and that she'd get back to me later with more details. You could just tell that she was absolutely thrilled to have my band playing at the prom.

"Fuck yeah." Trevor said looking pleased.

"I can't believe I ever thought that you were quiet." Jude commented lightly.

"Girl, I play a trumpet when I ain't playing guitar with these guys. Trust me, I ain't quiet guy."

"Clearly." Jude said looking amused, while sending me a 'where do you find these guys?' look.

I shrugged with a grin.

As soon as class was out, I rang Felix to let him know what was happening and he agreed to come to school, so that we could practise in one of the empty music rooms here at school. We had to wait for after school for Boris to join us, but he was happy enough to do so, even though it did disturb his previous plans he had with Tina. But she quickly forgave him when he informed her that he could bring one guest with him to prom and the guest he had chosen to bring was her.

My ears are still ringing from her delighted screams.

When we were finally kicked out of the school's music room at five we headed over to Felix to practise in his building's basement (which is sound-proof) since his whole family, besides him, are out of the city for the weekend.

I used his computer to email Mia to let her know what was happening, since after she had told me about us having a gig at the prom, I hadn't seen her much for the rest of the day due to practising.

"Aw, you're so cute." I jumped at the sound of Felix's voice behind me.

I spun around on his computer chair and glared at him.

"What?"

"'See you tomorrow night. Love, M?' You two are adorable, you know that?"

"Don't you know that it's rude to read other people's emails?" I asked him tersely as I turned back around on the chair, gave my email to Mia a quick read over before sending it.

"Do you seriously tell her everything?" Felix asked as he came to lean on the back of the chair that I was sitting in, ignoring my annoyed glare.

"What?"

"Do you tell her everything?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, for example, you told her of the fact that Trevor keeps grumbling under his breath 'Oh, man, can't we just stick forks in our eyes, instead?'." He quoted Trevor with a smirk.

"So?" I asked, trying to understand what he was getting at.

Felix simply shrugged.

"Most guys wouldn't tell their girlfriends that sort of thing, especially about something that was about her idea."

This time I shrugged.

"I don't know. I just do-did. I just do. What does it matter?"

"Probably nothing, just surprising is all. Anyway, your normal pizza or has she turned you into a vegetarian?" He asked as he walked out of his bedroom where his computer is and towards the kitchen.

"Usual." I said with a roll of my eyes, "Mia hasn't tried to turn me into anything. She accepts me as I am." I finished a tad defensive.

Felix raised an eyebrow at me.

"I was teasing you, you know?"

I sighed heavily.

"Yeah, I know. Um, listen, I have to go home and get some stuff. You sure it's ok for us to stay over tonight?" Felix raised an eyebrow at me.

"Fine" I replied with a roll of my eyes as I grabbed my school bag, "I'll be back soon, ok."

"Ok, bye." Felix said as he started dialling for the pizzas.

"Don't eat my Pizza." I yelled back as to him as I opened the front door his place.

"Aw, ruin all our fun!" I heard Felix yell back.

With a grin, I ran down his apartment blocks flight of stairs, feeling too energetic to take the elevator.

"Bye, guys." I yelled down the stairs leading to the basement where everyone else was.

"Bye!" and a "WAIT!" as Boris came running up the stairs from the basement to where I was.

"You heading home?" I asked, remembering just now that he was younger than the rest of us. When Boris is away from his usual group of friends (which so happens to be Mia's group), he becomes a lot more mature than when he is with them, like Mia actually. When Mia is away from her friends, in particular Lil and it's just her and me (and Lars), she becomes surprisingly (or maybe not surprisingly) mature for her age. I mean, this is the girl who's been taking care of the bills of her house since she was like seven years old.

Mia is quite mature for her age, it just that, her mature side tends to be shoved to the side when she is dealing dominating people like Lil and her grandmother. I think that she thinks it's simply easier to let them think that she's an idiot and childish then try and prove them wrong by showing that she is quite smart and mature. I don't think a lot of people realise just how intelligent and mature Mia is due to the fact that they only ever see her as being naïve (which, I admit, she is at times) or neurotic (which again, she is at times. And paranoid, but seriously can you blame her? With all the stuff that she has to put up with.) or clumsy. And I guess the list can go on, but my point is, they never really see the real Mia. At times, I don't even think Mia sees the real her either. She tries so hard to please everyone else that she doesn't realise that she is perfect just the way she is.

Boris shook his head before nodding it.

"Which is it?"I asked with a grin and watch him go slightly red in the face.

"I'm just going home to get some stuff, but I'm going to stay the night."

"Your parents are alright with that?" I asked as we walked out of Felix's building.

"Yeah," he nodded with a smile, "they're fine. They're happy that I'm involved with you know, a group... of actual people that I know and talk to… face to face." He went even redder but I understood what he meant perfectly.

My parents always got excited too, when I was his age, whenever I was involved in something that had other people in it. I guess they were worried that I might become or already was anti-social, because you know, unlike Lil who had had Mia as her best friend for several years when I was fifteen, I didn't really have anyone. I mean, yeah I had Felix and Paul, but they were sort of friends at school, I didn't have them over all the time like Lil has Mia, so whenever I said that I was in something, the computer club at AEHS for example, they were super happy about it, encouraging me to keep with it (as I have, if only for the rights to bring my laptop to school, something that only a computer club member can do for some absurd reason.). I guess, Boris's folks are the same that way.

"Cool." I said and grinned at him. "You looking forward to it?"

"Playing at your prom? Uh huh."

"Not nervous?"

"No. Compared to the concerts and recitals that I've had play at over the years, this is basically nothing. Easier music to remember too." He replied cheerfully and I grinned at him widely.

"Good, I'm glad." then I decided, since it was still a couple of blocks to go before either of our building, that I might as well use the time efficiently and tease the buggery out of him.

"So, you and Tina, huh?" Already he's face was on fire and he looked ready to run in the opposite direction to which we were walking in.

"It's-ah- it's, I mean, it's not like, um, how you think."

"Really?" I teased, getting more enjoyment out of this than I probably should, but it just so much fun messing with freshman's heads.

"Really." He insisted starting to panic. "It wasn't, I mean, I didn't plan for this to happen. It just something that suddenly happen."

"Hmmm, don't I know!" I agreed thinking back on how I discovered my far from what could be called platonic feelings for Mia and how sudden that had been.

"I really like her." He said slowly, hanging his head down lowly and I sighed heavily. Suddenly teasing him about this had become not so fun.

"I know and she likes you… lot."

"Really?" he asked, looking up at me hopefully.

"Well, given what I walked into yesterday, I would say yeah." He went all red again.

"Ah, yeah, sorry about that." He squeaked while I snorted.

"It's fine. I honestly don't care, but can I suggest you find a better make-out place than the G&T supply closet?"

"Um, yeah… will do."

"Good."

We spent the rest of the walk to his building talking about various things, Star Wars, Buffy, you get the gist of it.

"Do you want to wait here for me or head back on your own?" I asked as we said our bye for now outside of his building.

He thought for a moment.

"Um, if you want." He said with a shrug.

"I'll give you a ring when I'm leaving my place, so that'll give you about ten minutes to get the last few things that you need and whatever, ok?"

"OK." He said with a nod, "cool, thanks Michael."

"It's cool. See you later than." I gave him a wave before he headed into his building and I headed for mine.

I got home just before seven o'clock, changed out of my school uniform and into some causal gear, dumped all the stuff out of my school bag and repacked it with clothes for tomorrow, though obviously I'd come back here to change for the prom, and other stuff that I might need.

I also grabbed my guitar, because as much as I don't mind playing the school's or Felix's step-brother's guitar (who hasn't played it in like, three years. So that when I picked it up to play for the first time when I was over at Felix's a few months back, I actually couldn't due to it being so out of tune from not being played in so long and for the fact that it actually had several string broken. Felix and I split the price between us to buy new strings for it. Felix says that when he leaves home, he's going to sneak the guitar out with him, says it isn't right for an instrument of the quality that the guitar is to just sit around, gathering dust and never being played.), but I really prefer my own.

I don't know. There is just something about playing your own instrument that you brought with your own money, learned to play all by yourself without any help besides music books and from listening to CD's on how it should properly sound.

"Sweetheart, are you going to stay for dinner?" Mom asked as she stuck her head around my door as I sat at my computer, checking if I had any new emails, in particular if Mia had email me back. She hadn't, which had me a little worried, if only because I was wondering if her grandmother had somehow killed her computer. Clarisse, on occasions, has threaten to do just that, saying that Mia spends too much time on the computer talking with people who are below her… and by people, I'm guessing, she means me.

Thank you Clarisse, as if I need to be reminded that I am, indeed someone of lower statue to your granddaughter. I remember it almost every single day, what with the media on a particularly slow news day, have nothing better do than ask the question of why the hell is Mia with someone like me, when she could be dating someone like, say Prince Harry or one of the guys from the Backstreet Boys (over my dead body).

Seriously, I do not need to be reminded by her when I am already competing with the knowledge that I am not right for Mia. I know, I get it! But clearly I'm doing something right compared to those guys, given the fact that Mia is with me and not one of them!

"Sweetheart?" Mom's hand on my forehead drew me out of my mental brood.

"Ah, yeah. I mean, no Mom. I'm going to eat back over at Felix's. he was ordering Pizzas as I was leaving, so I'll head back there after I've called Mia. I want to run by her the line-up of songs that we're planning on playing at the prom tomorrow night." I said as I shut down my computer and swung my backpack on to my back and picked up my guitar case (obviously with my guitar inside.) and headed out to the den to ring Mia.

I was glad to see Mom had brought the whole pretences about my needing to call Mia because I needed to ask her if she agreed with the line-up of songs that we plan to play tomorrow night (I knew that there were some that she wouldn't agree with, but I couldn't change them or the guys would have fits.). I wasn't in the mood to be analysed by her about the real reason I wanted to call her, due to the real reason of my wanting to call Mia being somewhat petty and proving further that I really am quite a possessive person when it comes right down to it. The real reason being that I just wanted to hear proof that she was really mine, and not, say Prince Harry for example and because I missed her and I wanted to check that she was still alive, what with her Grandmother actually staying over at hers for the time being. I would be seriously unimpressed if Mia's committed suicide simply so that she could get away from her grandmother.

I called her home phone, due to the likelihood of actually reaching her and her actually answering it.

She answered after the second ring and I was immediately subjugated to the sounds of screaming voices.

'Hello?' Mia yelled over the noise.

"Mia, it's me." I said back loudly.

'What?' I opened my mouth to repeat myself, but was interrupted by her saying 'wait a moment,' I heard screaming noise start to degrease as she obviously moved away from it. I heard the closing of a door.

'Hello.' I heard her say, sounding a little stressed out.

"Hey, it's me."

'Michael.' She sounded far more cheerful now. I couldn't help but grin slightly at that. 'what's up? I got your email.'

"I just wanted to check if you agree with the line-up of songs that we've planning on playing tomorrow night." I gave her the list and surprisingly she seemed to have no problem with most of the songs that we were planning on playing, even some of the, ah, less than really suitable for prom songs. And some of the songs that she suggested that we add to the line-up weren't so bad either, though I admit, I did put my foot down when she suggested songs like 'She Bangs' by Ricky Martin, threatening that I'd sooner show up on the middle of Times Square wearing nothing but a cowboy hat than play those songs at my High School Prom. Which she accepted and went on to suggest more old school songs like Spoon and White Stripes instead.

I then asked what I had been dying to know since the beginning of our call, "What is all that shouting in the background." Because even though I know Mia is in her room, with the door closed, I could still hear the screaming match going on in the background.

'Oh. That's just Grandmere and my mom arguing.' Arguing? Is that what they're calling screaming matches these days? Sounds like they're ready to kill each other, 'Grandmere keeps insisting that my mom let her smoke in the Loft, but Mom says it's not good for me, or for the baby.' she paused for a moment, obviously listening to what was being screamed now, 'Grandmere just accused my mother of being a fascist. She says that when she had Hitler and Mussolini over to the palace for tea at the height of World War Two,' what? 'they both let her smoke, and if it was good for those guys, it should be good enough for my mom.'

"Uh, Mia," I started slowly, trying to get my head around what her grandmother was claiming she had supposedly during World War 2, 'you do realize that your grandmother just turn sixty-five."

'Yeah,' she sounded disgruntled, probably remembering, as was I, the huge hissy-fit that her grandmother threw when Mia informed her that she couldn't go back to Genovia for Clarisse's sixty-fifth birthday celebration due to the fact that Mia had mid-terms during that time, so would be un-able to attend.

The verbal abuse Mia and her Dad (who seconded Mia's claim that she had to stay here in New York to do her mid-terms) received before and after Clarisse's birthday was formidable. One time after their Princess Lessons, Mia came over to ours basically in tears because of her grandmother's attitude towards her for missing her birthday celebration.

So yeah, I do know how old Clarisse is quite well because of all that. Old enough for the world not to miss her in the slightest if she had some unforseen accident… ok, yeah, I admit I did feel somewhat murderous towards her during those weeks leading up to and after her birthday.

And now, she's lying about historical events to her granddaughter, I thought with a sigh.

"Well, Mia," I said, "I know maths is not your strong point, but you do know that your grandmother could only have been about five years old during the height of World War Two. Right?" I could almost hear the gears in Mia's head turning as she came to the realisation that, surprise, surprise, her grandmother had lied to her… again! "I mean, she couldn't have had Hitler and Mussonlini for tea at the Genovian Palace, because she wouldn't have even been living there yet, unless she married your grandfather when she was like, four."

There was a slight pause as Mia absorbed all that I had told her.

'Miserable old bat.' I heard Mia grumble and I smirked.

"Anyway, I have to go and get Boris, so that we can head back to Felix's to practise." I told her regretfully as I looked down at my watch and saw that it was ten past seven and that the guys (plus Boris) were probably becoming impatient for me (and Boris) to get back. I didn't want to get back to Felix's and find that they had eaten my pizza. "So I'll see you tomorrow night?"

'You bet.' She sounded so insanely happy all over a sudden, her happiness being infectious and I found, despite myself, that I was grinning and feeling happy too.

This is a very dangerous power that she has over me and if she ever finds out that she has this power over me… oh god, am so totally screwed…

_Like you aren't already_, a voice in my head snorted in amusement. _You are so totally whipped!_

"You haven't changed your mind, have you? Decided that you'd, in fact, rather go bowling instead?" I was winding her up, but a part of me, but I admit, it was a small part now, was still hoping she'd say yes, that she would rather go bowling than the prom.

'NO!' she basically shrieked back at me while I laughed.

"Ok, ok. I'm just teasing you. I'll see you tomorrow night. Don't let your grandmother get to you, ok."

'Ok.'

"Ok, bye. Love you."

'Love you too. See you tomorrow. Bye.'

"Bye." And we hung up.

"Boris is going to the PROM!"

"Argh!" I yelled intelligently as I jumped back and away from both the phone and Lil.

"Geez! Don't you know it's rude to listen in on other people's phone conversation? Plus you almost gave me a heart attack!" I snapped at her, though it was clear she wasn't listening to a word I was saying.

"Boris is going to the prom? YOU'RE PROM! Why?"

"Um, because he happens to be in my band." I reminded her as I picked up my guitar from where I had placed it up against the couch, "and because he's in my band, which is playing at the prom, my prom, he gets to come along."

She sniffed.

"And I guess he's take that bitch with him." She spat back at me.

I raised an eyebrow at her, especially when she said bitch considering how she's treated him just this week.

"You mean, Tina?" I asked.

She scowled furiously up at me and I rolled my eyes at her.

"Yeah, I do believe that he is taking her. Why? What's it to you?" I knew I was pushing it, I could just see it in her eyes that she was getting ready to give me one of her ankle shattering kicks.

"Hey, you dumped him, remember? You can't get mad at him for asking another girl to the prom, when you dumped him in the first place, as well as made he feel like he was nothing better than crap for the rest of the week."

"Shut up." She snapped at me, kicking out at me, though I managed to dodge her kick and put enough distance between her and me, so that for her to try and kick me again, she'd have to come closer and of course, I would see her coming if she did and simply move again.

"Well, I gotta go. Gotta pick up Boris and head back to Felix's." I said as I walked out of the den.

"Bye." I called to Mom, Dad and Maya in the kitchen getting ready to eat dinner.

"Bye. Have fun! Don't stay up too late!" They called back and with that, I left and headed back for Felix, ringing and picking up Boris along the way.

"You don't think they've eaten all the pizzas, do you?" Boris asked nervously as we walked towards Felix's building.

I started to answer when I saw something that stopped and my brain clicked onto something. I smacked my palm against my forehead.

"Michael?"Boris asked sounding alarmed.

"I doubt they've eaten any of the pizza." I replied with a sigh.

"Huh?"

"Strike, remember? All restaurants are closed." Boris eyes became somewhat bug like as he looked up at me in horror.

"But-but… what are we going to do for food?" he asked.

"Head for Grand Union and buy a whole heap of frozen pizzas." I replied as I changed my course and started heading for the closet Grand Union to Felix's place.

When we got there, it became apparent that I wasn't the only one who remembered that there was a strike on, as we soon came across Paul, Trevor and Felix in the frozen section, stocking up frozen pizzas, mini pies and other frozen food to the sustain us through the long night of practice that lay ahead of us.

Not that any of us actually minded, in fact, we were looking forward to it, playing all night and dare I say, we were actually starting to look forward to playing at the Prom.

Our first real gig… and it was at the Prom… I'm sure there is some kind of irony here that I'm just not seeing as of yet.

But anyway, Mia's happy; she's going to the prom. The guys are happy because we have a gig… even though, it is at our prom. And I'm happy because they're happy.

Paul and Felix seem to have gotten over the whole Judith thing, though neither of them are talking about it because it's still an obvious sore spot for them both.

Boris is happy because he's finally with someone who appreciates him, as we've all heard a million times because he get stop gushing about Tina every moment that we're not practising, though none of us have the heart to tell him to shut up already, we get it, you love her, she loves you, you're in a very, very happy place right now.

And Trevor's happy because he gets to play something that isn't being stuff down his throat by either his parents or music teacher and he's getting paid for it too.

So yeah, everyone is happy at the moment. Except for maybe Mia, who texted me a bit after twelve asking;

_Is it still illegal to murder someone, if they happen to be exactly like Grandmere?_

_No, because the whole world would too busy thanking you to press charges_. I texted back with a grin. _Get a shot in for me, ok ; )_

_Kay!_

I don't know why, but this cracked me up, maybe because I could hear her say it, her enthusiasm behind it.

She's a weird one, my girl. Yes, she is. But that's why I love her so.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> So orginally, this chapter wasn't as long as it now is. It was orginally only six pages (or something like that), but then when I read back over it, the flow wasn't quite right, so I added stuff like, the Boris and Michael scene and a few other stuff like Michael insecurities about his relationship with Mia and wondering if he really is worthy of her and so on. Just little stuff that ended up making this chapter like super-long.  
>Anyway, chapter Eleven won't be so long (its a whopping three pages lol), and it'll be up soon.<br>Again, Hope you enjoyed this chapter.  
>Bye for now.<p> 


	12. Chapter 11

**Author's Note:** Sorry about the slight wait with this chapter, I've been having a bit of trouble writing the Prom, since I've never been to one (Actually the last "proper" school dance that I've been to was when I was in the fifth grade. My year 12 dance wasn't overly impressive and I don't have any particularly strong or memorable moments from it to draw on. So yeah, slightly stuck on how to write it which is annoying. Anyway, this is a filler chapter, very short, but still hope you all enjoy.

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><p><strong>Chapter Eleven<strong>

You know there are two sides of the coin to staying up all night practising. The upside, you learn all the songs that you wanted to play at the prom. However the downside is that you're dog-tired when morning comes, going to sleep at nine-thirty in the morning, with the plan of waking up again at around three in the afternoon to get in some more practise in and to just give yourself enough time to get organised… but in actual fact you don't wake up until like, five o'clock in the evening.

"Fuck." I swore when I finally stirred myself awake at half past five Saturday evening. "Fuck. Fuck. FUCK!"

"Sorry, mate, can't help you, don't swing that way." Felix replied groggily from where he was asleep on one of the sofa's that was down in the basement.

"Shut up, Felix!" I growled before kicking him in the gut to get him to wake up completely, "Get up!"

"Wha? Officer, I swear to drunk that she's eighteen!"

"FELIX! GET UP!" I yelled, not even bothering to be amused by what he was babbling, instead, I kept on kicking him in the gut, causing him to yelp loudly.

"Geez, what's your problem?" Felix grumbled once he was awake… ish.

"Get up." I replied simply.

"But it's only five-thirty Michael!" Felix whined as he looked down at his watch. "We have plenty of time. Prom isn't until eight, dude." He said before trying to roll over and get back to sleep.

"No, we don't!" I snapped as I shook him back awake, "Dude, seriously, get up."

"Why?" This was Boris asking. He was peering out of his sleeping bag, looking a lot like blonde possum with braces.

"Because we have to get over there and set up everything! They're not going to do that for us, we have to do it, which means we have to pack everything up from here, take it over there, and set back up again. And they're also expecting us there by six!"

"Where is 'there', by the way?" Paul asked sounding puzzled as well as groggy from where he was sticking his head out of his sleeping bag.

"Huh?"I asked him intelligently.

"You never actually told us where the Prom is now taking place." Paul said as he pulled himself free of his sleeping bag and started to get himself organised. He was the only one though, the others were staying firmly in their sleeping bags, Trevor wasn't even awake yet, even with all the noise that we were making around him.

"Um, the Empire State Building."That got them moving.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Felix yelped, rolling over so fast off the sofa that he actually fell off it and onto the basement floor with a thud.

"Nope. And Felix, we've been through this, I don't swing that way." I said to him sweetly. He made a rude hand gesture which made me grin wider, "nope, sorry, still don't."

"Moscovitz, shut up and get your ass moving before I kick it." Felix warned me with a growl as he got out of his sleeping bag and started moving for his drum kit, a look of dread crossing his face at thought of moving it.

He wasn't the only one. We were all dreading the thought of packing it up and driving it to the Empire State Building, getting it up to the observation deck where the prom is going to taking place and setting it all up again.

But somehow we managed to do it. Somehow we managed to pack up all our instruments and getting them all into Felix's and Trevor's cars, get to the Empire State Building by five to six and where able to get up to the Observation Deck by five past six. It's amazing really, that we got there in such good time, what with all the squabbles that went on. The most memorable squabble of all was between Felix and Trevor. Everyone seemed to become wide awake after I revealed that the prom had been moved to the Observation Deck of the Empire State Building. All except Trevor, whom has to be kicked awake by Felix, who was probably out for some revenge for being kicked awake by me earlier and since I was already awake, Trevor was the next best thing. That is until Trevor grabbed his ankle just as Felix was about to kick him again, giving it a firm yank so that Felix lost his balance and was sent crashing to the concrete floor. This of course caused Felix, once he regained his breath to lunge at Trevor and all up took about five minutes to separate their half-hearted fight.

"Make out later, pack up now." I yelled at them, which of course had them trying to beat me up and… Yeah, so you see, we made very good time considering.

But still even with our good time, it didn't save us from Weinberger, who met us upon our arrival to the Observation Deck, screeching.

"Where have you guys been?" Lana shrieked at us as we came in, carrying our instruments.

"Kid, chill already, we're here now, so get over it." Felix replied as he walked past her with a part of his drum kit.

Lana stared after him, her mouth hanging open in disbelief at his attitude towards her, clearly not used to anyone, in particular a male, treating her as if she was beneath them or that she wasn't considered hot by them.

She glared furiously at me as I past her, as if I had purposefully ruined her night by being here.

I grinned back at her causing her to make a furious huffing noise as she swung around and stalked back to where the rest of the Prom Committee were standing (and not doing anything, I might add) and watching us with resentful eyes.

Though personally I don't know what they're all complaining about, since, from what I can see, beside from the refreshments table that was set up at one end of the deck, they haven't done much for all their self-importance.

I mean, they were acting as if they were the ones who had organised the prom to be moved here once it was cancelled, not Mia and her grandmother.

"Let it go." Paul said when he noticed where I was glaring, "They're just petty little girls."

I pulled a face at him, but did as he said and helped Felix set up his drum kit, while the prom committee thankfully disappeared, presumably to spend the next two hours with their dates before coming back here.

"Well, that's done." Felix said in relief that we were all feeling, because despite the fact that basically all of us didn't really want to be here, the thought of us making fools of ourselves at our very first big gig because we weren't set up properly was something that none of us wanted to happen.

"I'm heading home." I said stretching my arms above my head.

I received several weird looks for that.

"To change." I added with a roll of my eyes.

"Oh, right, yeah." The rest of them looked down at their own clothes.

"Are we allowed to be dressed in casual clothes at the prom if we're in the band?" Paul asked. He sounded a little worried, but then Paul has always be something of a worry-wart.

I shrugged.

"I honestly don't care. I wouldn't be if weren't for Mia."

"We wouldn't be here if it weren't for Mia." Felix pointed out, but his tone was teasing so I knew he wasn't overly bothered by the whole playing at our prom thing.

"Do you need to come with?" I asked Boris, but he shook his head as he looked up from his mobile, which he had been texting on for several minutes.

"I just texted my Dad and he said he'd bring my suit over for me. He'll be here in ten minutes."

"Cool." I said, mildly wishing my parents would do that sort of thing for me. Thought thinking about it, they probably would, if I asked them.

I said bye to the guys, promising I'd be back as soon as possible before heading home as fast as I possibly could.

I managed to get home in good time, shooting past Mom, Dad and Lil, saying a quick hi to each of them. I had a lightning fast shower before getting dressed in my god awful suit, which I swear Pavlov was laughing at me when he saw me in it.

He wasn't as warm with me as usual; probably grumpy because I hadn't been home for almost twenty-four hours and he had been stuck with only Mom, Dad and Lil for company (he's fine with Maya. Maya, he loves. My parents and Lil? He tolerates them if he has to). God, help me (and Pavlov) for when I'm away at college.

I'll have to talk to Mia and see if she can come over and visit him throughout the week, because if anything will help ease his anger at me for abandoning him while I'm at college, it's Mia. She honestly is his most favourite human in the whole world!

"Cutting it a bit close, don't you think?" Dad said as he looked at the kitchen clock as I came to say bye to them all when I was ready to head back.

I laughed without humour as I looked at the clock too. Twenty past seven… crap and I still needed to get back there.

"You overslept didn't you?" Mom asked with a knowing look in her eyes.

"Me? Oversleep? Don't know what you're talking about Mom. Anyway, I gotta go. See you all later." Mom rolled her eyes at me.

"Anyway have fun." Mom said while Lil simply slunk back in her chair, sulking.

"Yup. Bye!"

And with that, I was out the front door at a run, Pavlov barking miserable behind me. I am so going to have to make this up to him.

Anyway, I actually decided to cut my looses and take a taxi back to the Empire State Building, knowing that even if I did run it all the way back, I'd be late, so a taxi was my best bet. Which is odd, consider this is New York and its infamous traffic jams, even at this time of night, they're still horrible, but with the strike going on, barely anyone is bothering to leave their homes, so surprisingly I actually got back to Empire State Building in good time, with almost twenty minutes to spare.

It's strange, with only twenty or so minutes to go until prom official starts, I actually found myself feeling, I guess not excited about it, but I was anticipating it.

I wasn't filled with a sense of dread at the thought of the next couple of hours of my life being taken up by my high school prom, but rather, while I still wasn't quite looking forward to it, I had a feeling of anticipation at the thought of playing for a large and very real audience.

Yes, there is the very real fact that I'll know everyone that I'll be playing in front of; Richter and his cronies, people who were in my English, Trig and Chemistry classes, people who I had known for four years. But while I do feel a sense of nervousness, I also felt surprisingly calm… for the moment.

Plus there was one upside to coming to the prom that I hadn't remember or even thought of until Boris showed us the corsage that he somehow managed to buy for Tina without any of us noticing, explaining that flowers and ribbon were almost the exact same shade of light purple as Tina's dress. It was then that I remembered one of the ultimate upsides to going to a dance.

Seeing Mia in a dress.

I had completely forgotten about this little fact about dances and now that I remembered it, I found myself actually looking forward to the prom, if only so that I can see Mia in a dress and to play my very first big gig.

Maybe tonight won't be so bad after all.


	13. Chapter 12

**Author's Note:** 'groan' Am so tired! First day back at TAFE and I'm basically dead. Trust me being on a computer all day, using your brain, troubleshooting and ghosting your OS and so on. Anyway, am tired. I'm also, once again, the only girl in my networking class, 'sigh, but at least this time I have a friend with me, so I'm happy about that.  
>Anyway, back to what is important. Here is the Prom chapter, so please enjoy.<p>

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><p><strong>Chapter Twelve<strong>

I never thought I'd say this, and if any of you dare repeat this to anyone, I will happily send viruses to all your computers, but prom turned out to be far more interesting than I ever imagine. It was actually, and I can't believe I'm saying this, fun… in some ways.

Seeing Mia in her dress for example, was definitely one of the highlights of the evening.

She came in with Tina (and of course with Lars and Wahim behind them), before them looking pretty happy and energetic as they moved across the Observation Deck to where we were set up.

I couldn't help but grin back at her as she came to stand in front of me.

"Wow," I commented looking her up and down appreciatively, "look at you."

Now normally, I'm not a fan of pink, but like with the dress that she wore at Halloween, I'm happy to make an exception with this one too.

It was a soft pink, with all these sparkling pink beads all over it. It hung off her shoulders with this; I think it's called a sweetheart cut or something like that, before falling from her waist with this huge, filmy skirt. To be simple and blunt, she looked seriously beautiful.

Ok, so maybe this whole Prom thing isn't so bad… just as long as I get to see her in a dress like that!

She smiled somehow even more widely at me before dipping down into one of the curtsies that she has been learning from her grandmother.

I couldn't help but grin some more at that. Because while I am a little disturbed and intimidated by just how beautiful she looks, how much of a Princess she appears to be right now, I can't help but think, she's mine. This beautiful, wonderful girl is all mine. Just like I am all hers.

"Hi," she said as she rose back to her full height again.

Another thing about Mia wearing dresses like this one, she doesn't slouch anymore. She stands to her full height and she looks confident, like the Princess that she really is. I'm not saying that by wearing pretty clothes, that they give you more confidence, but it seems, if you wear the right ones, you just seem to be happier with yourself.

Mia in this dress simply looked happy to be herself, while in her school uniform for example she looks at times like she wants to be anyone but her.

"Hey." I said as I wrapped an arm around her waist and pulling her close to my side. "How are you this fine evening?"

"Good." She laughed as she leant into me.

"Oi. Stop that! You're giving ideas to those guys." Felix complained as he jerked he's thumb in the Boris's and Tina's direction. They were making googly eyes at each other.

I glanced down at Mia, who was watching them, torn between looking amused and rightfully disgusted. Good girl.

"Hey there Princess, how's it going?" Felix said, with an easy grin that made me want to hit him upside of the head for. Seriously, the damn idiot has no idea what that easy going grin does to the girls around him which is make them hyperventilate. While Felix might not be Josh Richter, he has the bad boy aura that girls seem to love and he even has his own little fan group (who he, for the most part, ignores completely). And while I know Mia isn't actually into bad boys, I do at times have horrible feelings that Felix might accidently cause Mia to fall for his charms. I mean, hello, Judith. Judith never had an interest (or respect I might add, since before they became friends she simply thought of him as a dumb pothead) in Felix, until she start hanging out with us and fell for his bad boy charms. Mind you, she also killed them somewhat, since when Felix became interested in her too, he started to tune down his bad boy acts and becoming more mature so as to impress her. Which it did, but obviously not enough.

Thinking that, I wondered, if Judith was actually going to come tonight after everything that had happened this past week. She might, in fact, not come, so as to not cause any friction between Felix and Paul tonight, since they need to stay focused on the band and not fighting over her.

"Hi Felix. It's going well." I heard Mia say back to him, smiling at him her usual bright smile, nothing out of the ordinary about it at all.

She happily said hello to Paul and Trevor (who despite still being a little cranky about playing at the prom, Trevor was on his best behaviour with Mia. Probably because he knows that if he isn't, I'll hit him. Actually, I'm pretty sure Felix and Paul would too. They're quite fond of Mia.) who said Hey, how you going back to her.

After all greeting were exchanged, the seven of us sat on the makeshift stage, watching as more prom victims walked out on the Observation Desk.

"Culturally diverse cheerleaders." Mia whispered to me suddenly, as she pointed out into the crowd. I followed her finger before having to fight back a snort of laughter.

Lana and several girls from my year who were also cheerleaders had all come to prom, in what appeared to be the same blue and silver gown. Just like at the Cultural Diversity Dance, where all the cheerleaders had gone to it basically dressed in the same slinky, black dress.

I cracked up laughing.

We got weird looks from the others, but we ignored them.

"Same amount of brain cells between them." Mia said, quoting what I had said about them at the Cultural Diversity Dance. "Those brains completely identical to each other, so none can ever be different, even if they wanted to be." She ended with a wide grin

"It's the sad, sad fate of cheerleaders; they are doomed to look and act alike forever." I added and she giggled.

We sat (or stood, if you were the rest of the prom victims) while Mademoiselle Klein gave this huge, long speech about how very lucky we are to be having this prom and in such a fantastic location and that we should be grateful. And that we should also be proud to have such talented musicians to play for us. I felt my ears go somewhat red at that. Mia bumped her shoulder against mine, smiling at me proudly, which of course only had me turning even more red.

As Klein's speech started to wind down, the seven of us got up quietly, Mia and Tina moving off to the side while the rest of us got ourselves together, picking up or getting behind our instruments, getting ready for Klein's signal for us to start playing.

"Well, enough with the speeches," Klein said as she smiled around at the crowd in front of her (and us). I saw where Mia and Tina were standing that behind them Lars and Wahim had gone somewhat slacked-jaw when they saw her smile. "I hope, in fact, I know that you will all enjoy yourselves tonight. It being a beautiful night, in an absolutely fantastic location with our very own live band playing for us. Please, put your hands together for your very own SkinnerBx!" and she started clapping as she walked backwards away from us and off to the side where Wheeton was standing, clapping too.

Actually, I was surprised by the response we actually got. I mean, yeah they had heard us playing on Mia's birthday, but I didn't think we'd get the explosion of claps that we did here because of that.

But we did. Over to the side I saw Mia grinning and clapping enthusiastically with Tina, Lars and Wahim.

She smiled widely when she saw me looking at her and waved. I waved back before forcing myself to be calm and to do what I needed to do.

We waited for everyone to calm back down before we introduced ourselves and started playing the first song from our line-up of songs.

Over the course of the evening we played both slow songs and fast songs, keeping a surprisingly good balance between them.

Despite our protests that we could play for two hours straight, Wheeton informed us that we had to take a ten minute break every half hour, reminding us that we had to play at least until midnight tonight and it wouldn't do got us to be completely stuffed by ten, and if that happened we wouldn't be paid in full. So with that in mind, we grudgingly agreed to those terms.

So at 8:30 we took our first ten minute break, which we found we actually needed. When we were practising, it seemed like we could play forever, but for some reason, being in front of a live audience, while they do energize you, you just seem to get tired a lot more quickly.

So when Wheeton signalled that we had to take our break, none of us complained, simply did what he wanted.

"Hey," I said once I found Mia by the Observation Deck telescopes with Tina and the two very bored looking bodyguards. The only excitement they've had tonight was when Wahim caught Richter trying to spike one of the punches at the refreshment table and threaten him with his numb-chucks.

"Hi," Mia said looking extremely happy for someone who is spending basically all of her time at prom being in the company of her bodyguard, her best friend and her bodyguard (both of them had disappeared to search for Boris).

I handed her glass of un-spiked punch.

"So are you having a good time?" I asked, worried that she might be bored or regretting the whole idea of this. I mean, she was way, way at the back of the Observation Deck.

_Because she'd be crushed if she stood anywhere else_, a sarcastic voice muttered in my head. It sounded a lot like Lars.

"Of course." The smile that she gave me made all my worrying and self-doubt disappear.

I took her hand and we took a look at the Hudson River.

"You look really beautiful." I told her and she beamed as she plunked happily at the pink, sparkling skirt.

With a smirk, I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her to me.

"And I guess the dress looks alright too." I added and she thumped me half-heartedly in the arm, her face bright red.

"You're so cute." I snorted of laughter.

Mia gave me a very dry look for that.

"So I've been downgraded from beautiful to cute?" she grumbled with a pout. I didn't rise to the bait and simply continued to grin at her.

"Are you mad?" I asked her teasingly.

She pouted some more.

"Yes. Very."

"Then I'll just have to fix that, won't I?" I said, moving in closer so that our nose bumped against each other. Before she could say anything else, and it was obvious that she was going to saying something, I kissed her, hard, on the mouth.

Actually, I might have gotten a little too enthusiastic. I don't know, maybe there was something in the air, but I felt bolder than I usually did when I was kissing Mia.

I felt the same way as I did yesterday in English and when we were shut in her closet at her birthday party. The same sort of feelings were coursing through my veins as those times.

_You're at prom! All your classmates are around you, they'll see you! You have to get your ass back on stage in three minutes,_ A voice was grumbling half-heartedly in my head, but I ignored it, too busy kissing Mia.

Hey, she wasn't making any complaints, even when I kinda accidently-on-purpose brushed my hand against her breast. Though that, touching her there, did shake me out of my hormonally charged mood, making me focus that hey, this was prom, my classmates were all around me and I did have to get my ass back on stage in two minutes and that this was SO not the right place for this sort of activity.

"I have to…" I mumbled against her mouth, my hands now firmly placed upon her hips.

"Get back on stage." Mia finished for me.

"Uh huh." I sighed against her mouth, before forcing myself to pull away from her. Why did she have to be so intoxicating? And yet, without her I feel like I can't breathe.

She smiled at me, making my desire to kiss her even stronger, but I forced it back and firmly told myself to get my ass back on stage.

"Where you been?" Trevor asked when I managed to get back to the make-shift stage.

"What? You didn't see him?" Felix laughed as I shot him a warning look, "Honestly Mike, never thought you had it in you." He teased me causing me to punch him in the arm, not too hard because we needed him to be able to play.

"Fuck you." I muttered.

"Nope." Felix replied cheekily. "Ask her."

I gave him a very deadpanned look, quite ready to strangle him, while Paul smacked him over the back of the head while Trevor laughed. Boris, who had just come up, simply looked at us in confusion before shaking his head at our immaturity… and honestly, I don't blame him. We're not exactly the most mature bunch of people on the planet.

With my own shake of my head at our immaturity, I picked up my guitar and got ready to start playing on Wheeton's signal.

It was just I wasn't expecting that I would be putting it back down again, so soon after picking it up. Right in the middle of Mia's birthday song, 'Princess of my heart', I happened to look up and over where I knew Mia was standing, only to see her freaking out as she spoke into her mobile.

I tried to stay calm because even though I wasn't completely sure, I had a pretty strong feeling about what was happening. What else could get Mia as panicky as she looked? Helen was having her baby.

_But she still has six weeks!_ A voice in my head said and I felt my panic grow.

Somehow I managed to stay calm long enough to finish 'Princess of my heart' before I hoped off the stage.

It was close enough to our break that Wheeton couldn't complain about my stopping, though I know I confused both him and the guys, who quickly informed our surprised audience that we were going to take a short break.

"Hey." I said as I came over to where Mia was freaking out. "What's up? Is your mom?"

Mia's head bounced up and down on her neck, her eyes wide and she looked terrified.

"Come on, let's go then. Is she at the hospital?"

"Ah, yeah. Same as before." Mia squeaked. "Lars is just called for a taxi, since Dad is using the Limo tonight."

"Ok, so let's go down." I said as I took her hand and started to pull her towards the elevators where I saw Lars standing by, talking on his mobile, while still keeping a firm eye on Mia too.

"What?"

"Huh?" I said, looking back at her.

"Michael. You don't have to come. I mean your band." She squeaked. I looked over to where the rest of SkinnerBx were watching us.

"I'll be back in a minute, ok." I promised her as I made to move towards them. She grabbed my arm.

"But-But, Michael honestly, you don't have to come. You can stay here and play. I mean, this is your band's first real gig and I know how important that is to you."

"Yeah, but you're more important." I replied with a shrug. "I'm going with you, ok."

"Ok." And I could see relief washing over her face.

"Ok." I said and I headed back for the band.

"What's up?" Paul asked. "Is Mia ok?"

"Her Mom is having the baby." I informed.

"Ok." They all nodded. They all knew, without being told that I was leaving them, which of course put them at a great disadvantage since I was lead guitar.

"Hey Boris." I said turning to him.

"Yes?" He stared back me with big wide eyes.

"How do you feel about playing lead guitar?" I asked.

I watched his eyes widen in disbelief as he looked around at the rest of us. I took a quite glance at them too and saw no protestation to this decision. In fact Trevor looked relieved.

"Um, if you're sure. I mean, I've never played lead guitar before or a guitar at all, in fact." He babbled nervously.

"Dude, if anyone can do this, it's you." Felix told him reassuringly and the rest of us nodded in agreement.

"Um, ok… but I'm not singing." He squeaked, which caused the rest of us to snort in laugh.

"Wasn't asking you too. Just play and they'll do the rest, ok." I told him and he nodded, smiling.

"Ok."

"Sorry about this." I said to the others but they waved me off.

"It's ok. We understand." Felix reassured me.

"Yeah, we do… we'll still be taking your share though." Trevor added with a grin. I was too wound up to actually care.

"Fine, if you want." I replied absentmindedly as I looked back to where Mia and Lars were standing, waiting for me.

"Ok, bye." I said. "Good luck." I called over my shoulder to them as I half ran half walked back to Mia and Lars.

"Are you sure…" Mia started worriedly.

I pressed a finger to her lips.

"Yeah, Mia, I am. So shush. It's all good." I took hold of her hand and together, with Lars, we left the prom.

This was not how I was expecting the night to pan out, but… do you honestly think I was complaining?

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> I'm not overly sure I'm happy with this chapter, but no matter how many times I've re-wrote this chapter, it just didn't seem to come out the way I wanted to it. Maybe at a later date, when I'm re-writing this whole series, fixing up spelling and grammar mistakes and adding more of my own little scenes, so maybe then, I'll be able to write this chapter the way I wanted it to. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed anyway and reviews are loved!


	14. Chapter 13

**Author's Note: **Hey everyone. Sorry for the wait for this chapter. I've just finished my second week of cert 4 in Networking and these past two weeks I've just been too exhausted from everything that I've been doing in class (learning about CISCO and how to use Switches and connect them to computers and to other switches and the programs you have to use to do all this) to do any writing. I find it all very interesting of course, I've just been feeling exhausted and have been having brain overloads almost everyday.  
>Anyway, enough of my whining, here is chapter 13, second to last chapter of this fic. It is the last chapter for this fic, and then I have the epilogue which is Michael's graduation.<br>And then, I think, I'm going to have to take a break from writing this series. Just for a little while, just until I have my course under control, so that I don't feel like I'm drowning in it and in control of what I'm doing, because seriously, Networking is not easy. My brain, feels like it's going to explode! Which might have me writing book six just to keep me sane. But I don't know, so don't be expecting book six, like, next week.  
>Give me a few to get my act together with the networking.<p>

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><p><strong>Chapter Thirteen<strong>

Well, to say that I had any idea that the night of my senior prom would end the way it did, then I'd be lying my ass off.

Though, it is kind of amazing, really. I mean, who would have thought, starting the night playing with your band at your senior prom and then ending it in the waiting room of St Vincent's Maternity Ward, waiting to meet your girlfriend's new baby brother or sister.

It was a baby boy, by the way.

Rocky is his name, which according to Mia, is a much better name than several of the other names that her mom and Mr G had previously come up with. I think one of those names were Sartre?

Anyway, Mia is ecstatic about him.

I thought that she might have been disappointed about not having a baby sister, but with the way that she was grinning when both the nurse and then Mr G came out to tell us that the baby was a boy, I don't think she minds too greatly about having a baby brother. Even with Lil - Yes, of course Lilly turned up! It's Lilly! Tina apparently rang her from the Prom, telling her what had happened, and she decided, since she had nothing else better to do at home, to come here and annoy us. - saying brothers aren't all that great, giving me a pointed look as she said it, which I ignored and simply had Mia sticking her tongue back at her.

I think the only thing that really disappointed Mia was the fact that she wasn't able to hold him, due to him being born six weeks early and having to be placed in an incubator due to his small size (he only weighs something like four ounces! He's so tiny!). But otherwise, I don't think I've seen her grin as much as I had that night. She was just so happy that she a baby brother and amused by the crowd on which accompanied her mom to hospital to have her baby brother.

And it was quite a crowd too, even before Mia, Lars and I (and Lilly, later on) arrived. When we arrived at the Maternity Ward we were met by Clarisse - who looked very pleased and smug with herself, and for once, and I say this grudgingly, she had a right to be, because if it hadn't been for her, little Rocky would have been born right there in the Loft, without any medical aid, which would have been seriously bad considering that he is six weeks early and is so small and needed a real hard hit of oxygen before his lungs really got going. If it hadn't been for her quick actions, yelling at people and so on, Rocky's birth could have been much more disastrous. Mind you, it wasn't soon after Rocky's actual birth and our meeting him, that she soon fell fast asleep in one of the hospital's waiting chairs, so I guess, she does have a right to feel a little smug with herself. – Mia's next door neighbour Ronnie – who waved at me energetically with a wide grin. Anyone else, I would have been a little disturbed and worried, but with Ronnie, he's/she's been like this with me for years, so I simply waved and grinned back. – Mia's downstairs neighbour, Verl – who was watching everyone in the ward a little suspiciously – and the cabbie who drove them (including Helen and Mr G, but they were already in the delivery room when we arrived) all here. Which is impressive, given the size of New York cabs, so I guess I can't fault him for sticking around, demanding to be paid the full charge of getting them all there, along with a fairly impressive tip for actually doing so, with so many passengers, plus demanding to be compensated for the damage that Ronnie's stilettos did to his floor mats. It was only when Mia's dad arrived did he shut up and leave, and that was only because Philippe threw a hundred dollar bill at him.

Anyway, it was quite an impressive group that formed in the waiting room of St Vincent Maternity ward, all waiting for news on one baby. And then again, waiting, once baby was born and put into his incubator, for his mother to recover from his birth. Not that we were bored, not with all the interesting people that we had around us to keep us entertained.

I was listening to a rather amusing story that Ronnie was telling us (which I will not go into detail here for fear of scarring impressionable young minds), when I heard Mia, who was sitting next to me, asking (and I know for the millionth time, if Philippe's exasperated expression was anything to go by) if, now that she had a little, baby brother, could she stay in New York for the _whole_ summer, so as to get to know him.

Philippe rubbed his eyes wearily and replied (for the millionth time, I'm sure) that Mia had signed a contract and she was to stick by what she agreed to.

Now, I honestly don't know what possessed me to say what I did next, maybe the simple desire of having my girlfriend around for the whole summer.

Anyway, whatever it was, I still can't believe I said what I did… and got away with it with only a look of 'you and I are seriously going to have to talk' from Philippe.

I simply looked Philippe straight in the face and said, "Actually, sir, legally, minors can't enter into contracts and so, according to New York State law you cannot hold Mia to any document she might have signed, as she was under sixteen at the time making it invalid."

My heart pounded madly behind my ears as I watched his face. God, for a moment there I thought I had caused him to have coronary.

Thank god, he didn't (and also thank god, we were in a hospital, if he actually did have one). Instead he just gave me this long, hard look. Which I returned even with my heart pounding madly in my ears and I was silently panicking that he was going to tell me to get the hell away from his daughter and that I was never allowed to see her ever again.

Even with all that going on inside of me, I tried to keep my face calm and cool, meeting his eyes even though in truth, all I really wanted to do was lower mine, say that I was very sorry and that I promise to shut up from now on, just let me keep dating your daughter.

"Well… will see." I blinked in surprise as Philippe said that, looking very grim indeed before moving off towards Clarisse, rousing her so that they could return to the Plaza, even though Clarisse argued that she should return and remain at the Loft for the time being to help out with little Rocky (or as she's been calling him her 'gwate big widdle man'. The kid is going to be scarred by her before he turns five!).

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mia's face fall (for the first time all night) in horror, echoing my very own feelings of horror at the thought of Clarisse remaining at the Loft for any longer than she had already stayed.

"Mia," Philippe said turning away from his ushering of Clarisse out of the waiting room, to where Mia was still sitting by my side.

"Um, yes Dad?"

"You should probably go and get some sleep too," he glanced at me, the hard look was still in his eyes as he did so, "Your parents wouldn't mind Mia staying over at yours for the night, would they?"

"No, of course." I replied calmly, or as calmly as I could under his still hard gaze. Now I understand why he is such a good politician. All he has to do is look at you with those eyes and you find yourself doing what he wants, whether you want to or not. "They'd be happy for her to stay over."

He nodded and gestured for us (Mia, Lil, Lars and me) to follow him and Clarisse out of the waiting room.

"Let's give your mother some time to rest. You can come back and see her and the baby in the morning… later this morning, I mean. Bed now" Philippe said to Mia, who had opened her mouth to protest over her leaving.

"Come on." I said, putting my arm around her waist, "I promise we'll come back as soon as visiting hours open, ok."

She pulled a face at me, before sighing and nodding.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw an amused look cross Philippe's face as he watched us, me fussing over her and her grudgingly accepting what I was saying.

"Fine." She grumbled, "But as soon as visiting hours…"

"Open," I finished for her with a smile, "we'll come straight back over. I promise. But now, come on, let's get some sleep. Your mom won't be happy if you're falling asleep over your baby brother later on." Mia stuck her tongue out at me, but didn't argue further with me.

"Bye Dad. Bye Grandmere." She said to Philippe and Clarisse as they hoped into their limo, while we made for Mia's usual one.

Lilly fell asleep almost immediately once we got home, leaving Mia and me to tell our parents everything that happened over the past couple of hours, before they too told us it was time for bed.

I changed out of my suit and into a pair of loose sweat pants and a grey t-shirt to sleep in. Not that I thought I was going to get much sleep, not when I knew I was going to have to get back up again in only a couple of hours.

I had just started playing _DOOM_, trying to beat one of the big bosses in the game, when I heard a soft knock on my door.

"Yeah?" I called, swivelling on my computer chair, pausing the game, as my door opened and Mia stuck her head around it.

"Hey." I said with a grin.

She smiled as she came into my room, closing my door behind her, which of course did funny things to my heart and stomach, even though I knew the reason for her closing my door was completely innocent, her knowing how much I like my privacy and having my door closed, rather than anything else that was going through my head.

_Stop it_, I said firmly to myself as she came over to me, dressed in fairly simple blue pyjamas that she leaves here at ours for when she has an unexpected sleepover with Lil.

"What's up?" I asked, trying to get my thoughts on to more innocent ground and away from… yeah. "You ok?" I smiled a little more softly when I saw that she was still wearing the snowflake necklace that I had given her for her birthday. So far, in these past two or so weeks, I don't think I've seen her without it on.

"Fine. Can't sleep… and Lilly's snoring." I laughed and without thinking, I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her, squealing softly, on to my lap.

I smiled as I hugged her close to me, burying my face into her hair and kissing her neck. I was rewarded with a bob on the nose for that as she tried to squirm away from me.

"That tickles." She giggled.

"Does it?" I asked as I tickled her sides, causing her to squirm on my lap, giggling.

"Michael!" She exclaimed, as she grabbed at my hands, trying to stop them from tickling her.

"Yes?" I asked innocently.

She pulled a face at me but I knew that I was forgiven when I saw her trying to fight back a smile, so that I knew that I was forgiven, that she wasn't really mad at me.

"You're horrible." She mumbled.

"Am I really?" I asked kissing her chin fondly. I heard her grumble under her breath for a moment before sighing.

"S'pose not." She relented and I laughed again as I gently took her pouting face in my hands and turned it towards me.

"You're so beautiful." I told her and grinned warmly as I watched her cheeks turn red beneath my hands.

"Shut up." She informed me, blushing even harder against my hands.

"Why? It's true."

"Sshhh…" she giggled in embarrassment as she tried to once more wiggle away from me. Not taking any of that, I kissed her fully on the mouth, which immediately stopped her wiggles and instead, had her arms wrapping around my neck and kissing me back.

Now before any one of you get too carried away and your mind goes too far down the gutter, I'll tell you all now, we were just kissing! Nothing else happen!

Ok, so maybe we did get on to my bed and made-out there for a bit more, but that's as far as it went.

Actually, we were both too tired for it to go any further then kissing anyway, both of us falling asleep on my bed, to be woken, after a too short a time asleep by my darling sister.

"You two are so lucky Mom and Dad didn't come in here this morning." Lilly exclaimed after she got over the shock of seeing Mia and me curled up on my bed.

"What?" I asked drowsily, barely even awake, even with all the slamming and stomping she was making. I was much too comfortable where I was to wake up properly and tell Lil to get the hell out of my room. There was a comfortable weight on my chest that I wanted to simply hold on to for the rest of my life. It just felt so right just having it there.

"Wake up! Both of you!" Lil close to yelled at us and I felt the comfortable weight on my chest move sluggishly against me, grumbling sleepy protests against my neck. I ran one of the hands that had been around her waist soothingly up and down her waist.

"Get lost Lil." I grumbled, burying my face into the comfortable weight sweet smelling hair.

"It's after ten. Visiting hours at the hospital are now opened! I thought you wanted to see your little brother again ASAP, Mia." I heard a soft squeak from the face pressed against my neck before she shot up and off me, causing me to grunted at the force that she had used as pressed her hands down upon my shoulders to help her sit up, so that she was now straddling my stomach.

"Sorry." She squeaked down at me in worry; though she mustn't have been too worried about me since she was already swing herself off me and off my bed.

"All good." I groaned, trying to wake up fully while also glaring at my grinning sister.

I will kill her one of these days, mark my words!

I'm not really sure how I managed to find the energy to get up and moving, getting dressed and eating some cereal before Mia was, quite forcibly, shoving me out my front door to head over to the hospital to visit her mom and Rocky.

We stayed at the hospital for most of the day, watching in amusement as Clarisse further embarrassed herself as she doted over Rocky.

"It'd be kind of sweet if it wasn't so creepy." Mia whispered to me as we stood off to one side of Helen's room, watching Clarisse cooing over a sleepy Rocky in his incubator.

I nodded slowly in agreement with her, mentally groaning at the thought of what Clarisse might be like with mine and Mia's kid.

_Our poor kid is going to be so messed up because of her and all the other madness that's goes on with us_, I thought with a slight grin, before I started freaking out as I realised what I had just thought. Kid? Kids? Our kid? Mine and Mia's? What the hell?

"What's wrong?" I heard Mia ask me, as she looked up at me in concern.

I forced my panicky to the side and tried to smile reassuringly back at her.

"Ah, nothing." I might have convinced her that it really was nothing, if my voice hadn't squeaked as I spoke. But, and the thing I love about her, she didn't push the matter.

She simply gave me a weird look for my strangeness before turning her attention back to the scarring of her little brother by her grandmother, grumbling a little under her breathe about it.

I simply breathed a sigh of relief.

As much as I love her, I wasn't about to tell her that I had just been thinking about our future kid… and so easily too!

I'm eighteen years old; I'm not supposed to be thinking about kids! Especially kids that I might have with my just turned fifteen year old girlfriend! What the hell is wrong with me? Seriously?

On a completely different matter, and a far, far safer one at that, the strike is now officially over.

Clarisse has packed up her things and has returned to the Plaza, much to everyone else's relief.

She offered to stay at the loft longer, to help with Rocky when he was taken back to the loft until Helen and Mr G got him into some kind of schedule. It seemed to me, that Mr G couldn't say, "Um, thanks so much for the offer Clarisse, but no," fast enough. He looked so panicky at the idea of Clarisse staying longer, that it was hard not to laugh at him

Anyway, the strike has ended with the restaurants finally caving to the demands of their busboy. They will now be receiving health benefits and sick leave and vacation pay. Well, all of the busboys except for Jangbu, of course.

He rang Lilly a little while ago, informing her that he's decided to collect all the money that he has received for his life story and is planning on returning to Tibet with it. His plan is to use the money that he has received to start up his own restaurant and to give his family financial stability for the rest of their lives.

Lilly is a little disappointed to hear about this, but I think that she is actually more disappointed over the fact that she missed out on going to the prom then she is about Jangbu leaving. Though she seems to be content with the feedback that she has received from Tina about everything that happened at the prom after Mia and I unceremoniously left the prom – like Lana's crying and telling Richter that he had ruined the most special night of her life after he and a couple of his cronies were caught leaning over the side of the observation deck, apparently to see if they hit stuff with their spit, by Wheeton who gave them all in-school suspension. _Sweet_. - as Tina was calling our leaving.

As thrilled as she is about the fact that Mia has a little brother, I think a part of her still thinks that leaving the prom for birth of a younger sibling really isn't worth it, that the prom was far more important.

I am so glad Mia doesn't think like that.

As much as she did want to go to my prom, she's shown no regret about missing most of it so that she could be around for her brother's birth.

Personally, I'm glad we left. As much as I had enjoyed playing with my band in front of a live audience, I discovered that really, it wasn't for me.

I like playing my guitar and playing with my band, but the thought of doing it full time, day in day out… I just don't want to do it. I can't see myself doing it. I'm not one of those guys who dreams of getting big in the music industry with his band. That was never my plan for SkinnerBx. I just wanted to create my band for the fun of it. And it has been fun and I want to keep playing with everyone, at least for the rest of the summer, but it's not what I want to do with my life.

I can't do it with my life. Not really. Not if I want to be with her for the rest of it. And I do. But to do that, I have to do something big with my life, so that I can deserve to be with her for the rest of it.

I can't be with her just as I am, or even as a part of a band that might, might be successful someday. I have to do something pretty special so that no one, later on, can say that I don't deserve to be with her, that she could be with someone better than me.

I just need to figure out what that big, special thing I need to do with my life is. Once I have, I then just need to figure out how I'm going to do it.

And I will.

Just watch me. I will become someone who will be worthy of Mia for the rest of our lives.

Just watch me and you all will see, I will become someone who will be worthy to be with her and be by her side for the rest of our lives.

And trust me, I will become that someone who will be worthy of her without any fault or doubt in anyone else's mind.

Including mine.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> I was thinking of just finishing it here, to not have an epilogue which will be about Michael's graduation. Mainly because I just didn't feel that I had the time to write anymore for this fic. But now that I've "finished" this fic, I want to go ahead and write the epilogue for it. I feel a little sad, I have to admit. The idea of putting this little pet project on to the shelf for the time being actually makes me feel a little teary. Silly, huh? But I don't know if you guys have realised this but I've been writing this series of fics for almost seven months. It's taken up a huge chunk of my time to write (Not that I mind at all. In fact, I'm delighted since it's been such a great way to spend my free time.), but at the moment I can't afford that, I need to spend my time learning about CISCO and Networking, the ins and outs of my course.  
>So for the time being this is goodbye. I'm not giving up on this project, I'm just taking a sabbatical from it to focus on my studies. I hope that you all can understand.<br>Lol, you know, I might being saying all this now, my goodbyes and what no with this chapter and when I post the epilogue, getting upset and all that, and then in like two weeks time, find myself with six or so chapters of book six written. You just never know.  
>But anyway, the epilogue will be up as soon as I've finished writing it and editing it, so you have that to look forward to. Hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter and you know reviews are loved.<br>Bye for now.


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